Telstra mobile customers will now receive immediate notifications as they near or exceed their smartphone data limit.
The company announced a new initiative on Wednesday that will see Telstra customers receive instant SMS updates each time they hit 50, 85 and 100 per cent of each month’s allocated data usage.
Under current regulations, telcos are required to inform customers when they are nearing their mobile data allowance, however a cheeky stipulation in the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code means phone companies need only send out data alerts within 48 hours of a customer exceeding their usage limit.
Telstra customers will also now be alerted for every $50 of excess data incurred.
“Our real-time alerts will deliver our customers the information they need about their mobile data use when they need it,” said Telstra mobile chief Scott McGibbony.
“It will allow people to grab a data pack or switch to Wi-Fi if they are nearing the end of their monthly data allowance.”
Telstra claims to have invested millions of dollars into tech upgrades in order to track customer browsing sessions and inform overzealous internet users.
“We have worked with our partner Matrixx to deploy this new real-time rating solution,” McGibbony added. “The solution is software-based and integrates into our network and existing infrastructure to rate data usage as it occurs and updates the billing system and customers usage meters.”
The new real-time alert system is expected to be in full operation by the end of November.
Vodafone currently alerts customers within 12 hours of reaching data limits while Optus aims to issue a notification within a maximum 24 hour window.
Photo: Artur Debat/Getty Images
