Telstra announces their long-awaited shared data plans

After announcing them in April (and reconfirming that they will do so in August), Telstra has finally released details about their shared data plans – allowing you to have one plan with multiple devices sharing the data allowance.

The shared data plans come as an add-on to your existing plan. You will have to pay an additional $10 per month to have the privilege to share data, and another $10 per month for every additional SIM card – and you can only have up to 3 additional SIM cards.

To celebrate the launch, Telstra is also offering an additional 1GB of data to share for those who sign up to the Shared Data add-on before the end of the year. The 1GB extra will only last for 12 months, however.

So after months of anticipation about whether these will come out, are you happy with the plan or disappointed? I am slightly disappointed, but only because I always thought it would be an extra plan with lots of data. However, it does make sense to use an existing account so you’re not juggling with two accounts. But then again, I’m not a Telstra customer.

Optus has also indicated that they will do the same thing in the next twelve months, according to Gizmodo Australia. So lets hope there is some competition in this field – unlike the entire telecommunications area.