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Now that Telstra owns Boost, is it still worth using?

Boost Mobile's price has been increasing over the past couple of years, so is it still worth considering now that it's officially owned by Telstra?

Nick Broughall

Dec 6, 2024 • 10 min read

A few months ago, Boost killed off its best value plan. I know this, because it was the plan I was using for every member of my household.

Instead of $230 for a full year and 170 GB of data, the cheapest Boost long expiry plan is now the $300 plan, with 265 GB of data standard over 365 days.

According to the research I did last month, that means Boost doesn't have a plan in the 100 best value plans in Australia. This is according to my formula based on a combination of cost/day and amount of data/day over 12 months.

Boost's biggest selling point was always the fact that it was the only MVNO to offer access to the full Telstra network. Telstra's brand may be synonymous with anti-competitive behaviour with fixed-line Internet, unfairly locking in indigenous customers to contract plans they couldn't afford, or overcharging customers again and again, but it does have a strong mobile network.

Other brands that use Telstra only get to use "parts of" Telstra's infrastructure. That's typically fine in suburban or metro areas, but does become more frustrating in regional spots.

But Boost had the whole shebang. Why? I couldn't tell you. But for a time, it did make it an extremely attractive option for people after the strongest mobile network at a discounted price, without having to pay Telstra directly.

But that all changed this week

If you've ever been a Boost customer, you might be surprised to know that Telstra only officially bought Boost Mobile this week for about $140 million.

For years, you've been required to use a Telstra ID to log in to your Boost account, and when I had some issues a few months ago trying to set up my eSIM on Boost, I ended up on a call with Telstra's support staff.

In hindsight, it was probably inevitable that this takeover was going to happen. But now that it has, is it worth sticking with Boost?

My answer? Probably not, but it depends. Let me try to explain.

Prepaid vs postpaid, and who should use Boost

Boost Mobile has always been about prepaid mobile plans. You pay up front, get a set amount of data and phone calls, and use it until it expires.

Telstra has a much more complicated product offering. It does offer prepaid plans, absolutely, but it has more in the postpaid space. Comparatively, Telstra's prepaid plans are terrible value.

If we stick with the 365 day long-expiry market, Telstra only has one plan. It costs $350 and includes a paltry 165 GB of data, though you'll get a bonus 95 GB for your first recharge for a total of 260 GB.

When I did my comparison, that plan was ranked number 232 out of 264.

Just a small aside: My ranking didn't include the value of international calls, or data rollover, or network speed caps in its weighting. These things may be important for you, so don't exclude any plan automatically just because I say it's not fantastic value. Do your own research and make your decision based on that. If you need a kickstart, paid subscribers can get a copy of my comparison spreadsheet to update and make their own comparisons.

Here’s how they stack up when it comes to long-expiry prepaid plans. Boost's cheaper plan, which offers 240 GB of data (plus 25GB for the first recharge) for a normal price of $300.

It's $50 cheaper, and gives more data, while using the exact same network.

In this particular comparison, Boost is a no brainer.

But if you're not looking at long expiry, things are a little murkier. In last month's data, excluding long expiry and 7-day prepaid plans for both Telstra and Boost, there were nine prepaid plans, all ranked between 231 and 252. Out of 264 plans total.

From a pure value perspective, neither Boost nor Telstra offers great value. You can save a lot of money by shopping around.

Obviously, you're paying for the full network. But if you're happy to sacrifice that small percentage of network coverage, you can save an absolute fortune, while still using (parts of) the Telstra network. Last month, Lyca's Unlimited Plan M ($40/28 days; 80GB data excluding bonuses) was the 4th best value plan by my reckoning, and it uses Telstra's infrastructure.

Will the Boost Brand survive?

Honestly, this is the real question. Boost's price proposition has been shifting away from a real bargain and closer to core Telstra pricing territory anyway.

But Boost also invested heavily in building a youth-friendly brand with a focus on action sports like surfing and racing.

Telstra is not going to be in a rush to throw all that away, so I expect we'll see Boost Mobile hang around for a few years yet. There may even be a honeymoon period where Telstra makes it more enticing to sign up to.

But don't expect it to become better value in the long term. If you want a better value mobile plan, it's important to compare what's on the market at least once a year.

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This week in tech

This week's reviews

I spent a bit of time working on some site improvements this week, which meant I only managed a pair of reviews. Still on track for 100 this year though!

NRGVault 10,000mAh power bank

Samsung Jet Bot Combo AI robot vacuum

Thanks for reading

That's it for this week's roundup for free BTTR members. If you upgrade to the paid tier (just $10 a month), you'll get access to the rest of this week's newsletter, which includes:

A roundup of the best tech news of the week (with some commentary from yours truly)
A preview of next week's product reviews

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this week's newsletter, or even some input on what you'd like to see in next week's roundup.

Until next week

Nick @ BTTR