Phone companies are obliged to inform you if you’re chewing through your mobile data allowance — but an annoying quirk of the TCP Code means they only have to do so within 48 hours of it happening, by which point you can have wasted a lot of money on excess charges. Telstra is currently rolling out a system which will see those notifications apart near-instantly.
Telstra says that usage alerts indicating when you have used 50, 85 and 100 per cent of your allowance will now be sent “within seconds” of the usage occurring.
That change is being progressively rolled out to all consumer plans, a process Telstra says will be completed by November. (It introduced the alerts last July.) Telstra will also send an update for every $50 in excess data charges you incur.
Usage tracking in Telstra’s 24×7 and My Telstra is also improving, though not quite as much. Data usage will now be updated every 15 minutes.
The bad news? This doesn’t yet apply to business accounts, though Telstra says it is working on it.
Comments
6 responses to “Telstra Mobile Data Usage Alerts Now Happen Immediately”
If this is true and Telstra actually does this, then I demand that the Telstra 24×7 app is real-time and not delayed by 48 hours too.
Edit: I’ll settle for that 15 minutes delay.
The Android version estimates your usage currently using the built in Android data usage. Not what you want, but its good enough.
The built in Android monitor is amazing, especially with the auto cut off level
Good news, but I still think there should be a mandatory cut-off level, i.e if you spend more than say 200% of your monthly bill then data services are cut until you contact them to sort it out. The unlimited credit arrangement that telco’s get away with is something unseen in other areas of business; it is akin to a bank taking the limit off a credit card without any deference to the customer’s ability to repay the debt. It may be legal but it is unethical.
With the built in andoird usage app. this notification has become almost obselete.
Other carriers should be made to follow suit, and until that and options of disable data and/or calls when at limit, and pre-call remaining included call credit when 10% or less remains (like on some prepaids) they should not be allowed to charge excess usage fees.