Australian operator Telstra has cut prices and increased data caps in an attempt to stave off falling broadband market share.
The incumbent, which lost 23,000 broadband subs in the first half of the year, has increased the data allowance for its entry level plan tenfold to 2GB, and offered price reductions of up to A$80 per month on services bundled with a phone or pay TV subscription, Telstra said.
Its A$0.15 per megabyte excess usage charge will now apply only to the entry level plan, with the remainder to be throttled at 64 kbps after usage limits have been exceeded.
In its most recent annual report, the company disclosed that it was “seeing increased pressure in [the segment] as market penetration increases and competitors continue to offer low-cost broadband.”
New CEO David Thodey last month acknowledged that the company had gone “too far out of line” with its broadband pricing, adding that “we need to come back.”
Andrew Sims, general manager of mid-sized ISP iPrimus, said Telstra's new plans still offer far less value for money than the average industry plan.
“[Telstra's] best offers announced today still come nowhere near to matching plans offered by the rest of the industry,” he said, noting that iPrimus's starter plan offers five times more data than the equivalent Telstra plan.
“I struggle to understand how they can justify the price differential to their customers,” he said.
Meanwhile, communications minister Stephen Conroy has failed in his attempt to hurry through the legislation that would see Telstra forced to separate its retail and wholesale divisions.
Conroy had aimed to push through the legislation before the Senate stopped sitting for the year, but has run out of time, and will now have to wait until parliament resumes next February.