I live in rural Australia and ditched Telstra to save almost $1,000 a year

By Christie Graham

Last updated 08 August 2023

I was a loyal Telstra mobile customer for close to ten years. At the time, the price of a Telstra mobile plan compared to Optus and Vodafone — the only three telcos I naively considered — didn't seem too much more when I weighed up the benefits.

Living in rural Australia heavily influenced my decision to sign up with Telstra. But as time went on and the cost of living increased, including Telstra's prices, I decided it was time to take a hard look at what I was really paying for and explore ALL my options. Since changing plans, I honestly cannot tell a difference except for saving a lot of money each month. Here's everything I have learnt.

Why I chose a Telstra phone plan

Originally I chose a Telstra mobile plan because I often travelled to remote areas of country NSW with patchy reception. And while I still had to climb the tallest hill to make a phone call, I was convinced it was worth the price just to reach friends and family back home.

Since then I moved to rural Southern Queensland and so I continued justifying the premium pricing. However, Telstra's announcement of phone plan price rises had me wondering if I was really getting the best deal for my situation.

Why I switched to a Boost Mobile phone plan

In my time working for WhistleOut, I learned the value of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs for short). These are smaller telcos that buy network access from one of the big three telcos, either Telstra, Optus or Vodafone. They then sell their own plans to customers, usually at a cheaper rate but with less perks.

Because several MVNOs use the Telstra network, this meant I could get away with receiving the same mobile coverage but for a better price, especially if I chose Boost Mobile, which offers full Telstra 4G and 5G coverage. The only catch would be sacrificing any perks that come with being a Telstra customer, like the Telstra Plus rewards program.

Telstra Plus rewards: are they worth it?

It's no secret being a Telstra customer comes with some pretty sweet perks. The trick is remembering to use them.

In the almost TEN years that I was a Telstra customer, I cashed in my Telstra Plus points only TWICE. Once when I found out they expire after three years and again the day before I switched providers. And all I got was a small portable speaker and a smart scale that obnoxiously reminds me that my bone mass is low for my age.

Comparing Telstra and Boost mobile plans

Before I made the switch to Boost Mobile I was on Telstra's Basic plan paying $58 per month for 40GB of data. I never came close to using this much data, however, the next Upfront plan below it was $47 for just 2GB of data.

Considering my average monthly data usage was between 5GB and 10GB of data per month, I would easily burn through this lower amount of 2GB per month. And so, due to Telstra's limited options, I was stuck.

Since moving to Boost Mobile, I choose a plan that caters better to my data usage needs AND saves me money each month. Specifically, I downgraded to a $22 per month plan with 7GB of data with a 28-day expiry.

Now here comes the math…

Since Telstra raised its plan prices on July 4, its Basic plan price jumped from $58 per month to $62 per month. By switching to Boost, I am now saving $40 per month, which is a huge saving of $480 per year.

Furthermore, my husband who was also on the same Basic Telstra plan as me has also made the switch to the same $22 per month Boost plan.

This means our household is saving a total of $960 per year just by choosing a mobile plan from a smaller telco that better suited our needs.

Boost vs. Telstra: Mobile plans compared

How does Boost Mobile stack up against mobile giant, Telstra? We've compared the telcos based on price, data inclusions, plan offerings, perks, coverage and more. View our guide.

TLDR: Telstra isn't the only telco for rural Aussies

There are many reasons people choose certain telcos and providers. For me, making sure I had reliable coverage was a dealbreaker. Thankfully I haven't noticed a difference in my mobile coverage since switching to Boost Mobile. So what was I paying more than double for?

If you don't mind giving up benefits — like a new handset on a plan or a fancy rewards program — in order to save money, switching to a smaller telco is definitely the way to go. But if, like me, you live in a rural area and rely heavily on Telstra's widespread and stable network, I highly recommend switching to Boost Mobile specifically.

The MVNO offers greater plan flexibility to save customers quite a lot of money per month, depending on which plans you're switching from and to. The perks you gain from being a Telstra customer do not outweigh the potential savings when Boost offers the same Telstra network coverage. Let's face it, I could've spent that $960 on a small speaker and scale myself and still had cash to spare.