It's no secret, Belong is quite literally budget Telstra. Telstra owns Belong and runs it as its discount mobile and broadband brand, and in many cases, undercuts its mainline products. In fact, Belong has some of the cheapest phone plans on the Telstra network.
But if you want to get the most out of your phone plan, you may be wondering whether Belong's cheaper options can really rival what you'll get from Telstra. We've gone over how the pair compare on key aspects like data, coverage, international calls, and international roaming below.
Belong vs. Telstra: Data inclusions
Belong
Right now, Belong has four core plans: a 25GB option for $29 per month, a 40GB option for $35 per month, a 100GB option for $45 per month, and a 160GB option for $55 per month. These include unlimited talk and text and, for an extra $5 per month, you can add an international call pack to your plan.
These plans all have 5G connectivity, but are subject to speed caps. The first three plans are limited to 150Mbps, while the 160GB plan has faster speeds of 250Mbps.
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#1
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Belong
25GB Mobile Plan
$30/mth
Min. cost $30
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#2
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Belong
40GB Mobile Plan
$35/mth
Min. cost $35
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#3
|
Belong
100GB Mobile Plan
$45/mth
Min. cost $45
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#4
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Belong
160GB Mobile Plan
$55/mth
Min. cost $55
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Telstra
Telstra has a much wider range of plans than Belong, spanning prepaid, SIM-only, and phone-with-a-plan categories. You can pay as little as $12 for a seven-day 3GB recharge or over $200 per month for a 1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max with a 300GB plan. When it comes to variety, there's a plan for almost everyone on Telstra.
Here are Telstra's SIM-only plans, called Upfront Plans. You can now bundle these with any phone the provider sells on a payment plan.
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#1
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Telstra
$65 Basic Upfront SIM Plan
$65/mth
Min. cost $65
Link not supplied
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#2
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Telstra
$75 Essential Upfront SIM Plan
$75/mth
Min. cost $75
Link not supplied
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#3
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Telstra
$99 Premium Upfront SIM Plan
$99/mth
Min. cost $99
Link not supplied
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Belong vs. Telstra: Coverage
Belong
Belong is powered by the Telstra wholesale network, much like almost every provider on the Telstra network. As such, Belong's 3G and 4G mobile coverage reaches 98.8% of the Australian population. Its 5G coverage reaches 75% of the population.
Telstra
Unsurprisingly, Telstra has access to the full Telstra network for its plans. This reaches 99.6% of the Australian population. Meanwhile, Telstra's 5G network reaches over 80% of the Australian population.
Here's how the full Telstra network and Belong coverage (Telstra wholesale) compare:
Telstra full vs. wholesale network coverage
See our guide to learn more about how the full Telstra network differs from the Telstra wholesale network, as well as the key difference between popular providers offering plans on these networks.
Belong vs. Telstra: Phones
Belong
At this stage, Belong doesn't sell phones on a plan. All Belong plans are SIM-only. Belong does however sell refurbished phones outright. At time of writing, a refurbished iPhone 12 will set you back just under $600 from Belong.
Telstra
Telstra has a wide range of devices available on a plan, including the latest handsets from Apple, Samsung, Google, and OPPO. These are available on a 24-month term or 36-month terms. Here's a quick look at some of the phones available on a Telstra plan:
Galaxy S25 256GB
- 6.2 inch display
- Rear Cameras: 50MP, 10MP, 12MP
- Front Camera: 12MP
iPhone 16 128GB
- 6.1 inch display
- Rear Cameras: 48MP, 12MP
- Front Camera: 12MP
Pixel 9a 5G 128GB
- 6.3 inch display
- Rear Cameras: 48MP, 13MP
- Front Camera: 13MP
215
- 2.4 inch display
- 128MB int. memory (useable capacity will be less)
- Released in October 2020
A94 5G
- 6.43 inch display
- Rear Cameras: 48MP, 8MP, 2MP, 2MP
- Front Camera: 16MP
Belong vs. Telstra: Contracts
Belong
All of Belong's plans are no-contract. As they're SIM-only, you'll need to own an unlocked phone, but you're free to switch plans on a month-to-month basis, or leave at any time without penalty.
Telstra
All Telstra plans are also contract-free. That means you can step up or down in plan size, or leave, at any time, without penalty on all Telstra prepaid and Upfront SIM-only plans.
If you're on a handset plan with Telstra, you can still leave at any time without penalty, but you will have to pay out the remaining value of your phone.
Belong vs. Telstra: International calls
Belong
Once you've selected the data allowance for your Belong plan, you can choose whether to add international calls. Belong offers an international inclusions pack with unlimited calls and texts from Australia to 30 countries as a $5 per month add-on to any plan. Its 160GB plan comes with international calls as standard.
Countries you'll be able to call as part of Belong's international call pack are as follows:
Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA, and Vietnam.
Telstra
Telstra's Upfront Plans have brought back international talk and text inclusions.
Each Upfront plan comes with 30 minutes of standard calls to overseas numbers from Australia and unlimited international SMS to all countries. If that isn't enough for you, however, you can still add an international calling pack to any plan for an extra $10 per month.
With the Telstra pack, you get unlimited calls to 23 destinations. These are as follows:
Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA, and US Virgin Islands.
If you want to call a country not on this list, you can get a $20 per month pack that gets you 200 minutes to a further 45 destinations, or a $30 per month pack that gets you 200 minutes to 93 further destinations. You can check these out here.
Telstra Prepaid plans with recharges worth at least $35 come with international minutes included. A $35 recharge gets you 300 minutes to Zone 1 countries, 60 minutes to Zone 2 countries, and 5 minutes to Zone 3 countries. You'll also get 100 texts to any country.
Zone 1 countries are as follows: Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA, US Virgin Islands, Vietnam
Zone 2 countries are as follows: Argentina, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Faroe Islands, French Guiana, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Greece, Italy, Laos, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, France, Iran, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Mexico, Mongolia, Palestinian Authority, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Peru, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Slovak Republic, Venezuela
Zone 3 countries are as follows: Austria, Comoros, Croatia, East Timor, Egypt, Fiji, Ghana, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Russia, Samoa, Serbia, Solomon Islands, Surinam, Switzerland, Tonga, Turkey, Vanuatu, Zimbabwe
Belong vs. Telstra: International roaming
Belong
Belong has a single roaming option: you'll pay $30 for 3GB, with a 15-day expiry. This also includes unlimited standard SMS, and up to 150 minutes of calls. Belong's roaming works in over 30 destinations, including New Zealand, parts of Asia and Europe, as well as Canada and the USA.
Telstra
If you want to use your Telstra postpaid or Upfront plan overseas, you'll need to buy a Telstra International Day Pass. This allows unlimited calls and texts – and use up to 1GB of daily data – for $5 per day when roaming in New Zealand, and $10 per day in over 70 countries. The international day pass expires daily at midnight AEST.
If you go over your 1GB of daily data, Telstra will bill an extra $10 and a further 1GB of roaming data to your account. This data has a 30-day expiry, and can be used on subsequent days whenever you go over your initial 1GB.
Telstra prepaid customers have access to roaming packs too. These are as follows:
- $10: 400MB data, 15 SMS, 15 minutes of talk, three-day expiry
- $15: 2GB data, 25 SMS, 25 minutes of talk, seven-day expiry
- $25: 4GB data, 50 SMS, 50 minutes of talk, 14-day expiry.
Prepaid roaming packs only cover 35 countries.
Belong vs. Telstra: Data rollover and gifting
Belong
If your data use tends to vary from month to month, Belong's plans allow you to bank ('roll over') unused gigs. Whatever data you don't use each month can be stored away for future use, and you're able to bank an unlimited amount for as long as you want.
Notably, you can swap plans and still maintain your data bank. If you've managed to stockpile a significant amount of spare data on Belong's $45 plan, you may want to drop down to its $29 plan until you make your way through your stash.
You will however lose all banked data if a payment is left overdue for an "extended period".
In addition to saving unused data for your own personal use, you can also donate it to fellow Belong customers through Data Gifting. If you've got data to spare, you can gift it to any active Belong user in increments of 1GB, provided your own account has at least 1.3GB of data remaining on your current billing cycle or in your data bank.
Data can be gifted up to five times per billing cycle.
Telstra
Customers on Telstra Upfront plans can't bank any unused data, but the feature is available on prepaid plans You can save up to 200GB of unused data, provided you recharge your plan before its expiry date. Any data remaining at the time of recharge clocks over to a new month will be automatically moved to your data bank.
Recharges must be a minimum of $10 to qualify, and you need to have an active recharge to access your data bank. Your stored away data doesn't expire unless you cancel your service.
As with Belong, you can access your data bank even if you move to a lower-cost recharge.
You can also share data on Upfront Plans between 10 eligible services connected to the same account.
Belong vs. Telstra: Excess fees
Belong
If you do go over your monthly data allowance on Belong, you won't be charged any excess fees. Instead, your service will be slowed to 1Mbps for the remainder of your billing month. You can however purchase extra high-speed data at any time. Belong charges $10 for a 5GB block.
Telstra
Just like Belong, Telstra doesn't charge any excess fees on postpaid and Upfront plans. Instead, your service is slowed to speeds of 1.5Mbps, but you'll be able to use an unlimited amount of data.
Data at this speed should be able to stream video in standard definition, but in reality, speeds may be slower during peak periods.
Telstra prepaid plans don't have excess fees either. If you run out of data on your Telstra prepaid plan, you'll simply be cut off from the internet until you recharge again.
Belong vs. Telstra: Free stuff and extras
Belong
Belong offers great plan value and features, but is a fairly no frills telco as far as freebies go. You can however score a $20 credit for every friend you refer, up to a maximum of $200.
Telstra
Telstra plans used to come with a bunch of extras, but since the switch to Upfront plans all you'll get out of the box is data-free music streaming through Apple Music.
Telstra customers also get access to the Telstra Plus perks program. This includes:
- $13.50 adult movie tickets ($11.50 for child tickets) for Event and BCC cinemas, excluding sessions after 5pm on a Saturday, public holidays, and special events
- Discounted tickets to select sporting events
- Presale tickets for select concerts and events
As part of Telstra Plus, customers earn 10 points per dollar spent on their monthly bill. Once you accumulate enough, you can redeem your points for a shiny new gadget or a discount on a pricier shinier newer gadget.
The value of a Telstra Plus point seems to range somewhere between 0.3 cents and 1 cent, depending on the item you're after.
Looking for a different Telstra-powered provider?
If you've decided neither Telstra nor Belong are the right choice for you, here's a selection of popular plans from providers powered by the Telstra network.
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#1
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Belong
25GB Mobile Plan
$30/mth
Min. cost $30
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#2
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Boost Mobile
$26 Prepaid
$26
Per 28 Day Renewal
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#3
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Tangerine Telecom
25GB 5G Mobile SIM
$29/mth
Min. cost $29
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#4
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Superloop
SuperSim Saver 4G Plan
$25
Per 30 Day Renewal
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#5
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ALDI mobile
$25 Mobile Plan
$25
Per 30 Day Renewal
Link not supplied
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#6
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Telstra
$39 Pre-Paid Mobile
$39
Per 28 Day Renewal
Link not supplied
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#7
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Everyday Mobile
Pre-paid Mobile $25 Recharge
$25
Per 30 Day Renewal
Link not supplied
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#8
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Exetel
ExeSim Saver 4G Plan
$20
Per 30 Day Renewal
Link not supplied
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