Telstra’s Retail Vs Wholesale mobile plans (what it offers versus what its Mobile Virtual Network Operators – MVNOs offer) are two very different animals. Should how much you are gouged dictate the services/coverage you receive?
First, a little background on Telstra’s Retail vs. wholesale mobile plans. Telstra and one MVNO, Boost Mobile (now 100% Telstra-owned), use the full Retail Network. Every other Telstra MVNO, like Belong (Telstra-owned), Woolworths and Aldi, uses the Telstra Wholesale network. For the most part, city and urban dwellers won’t notice the difference. But rural, regional, and remote areas will. If download speeds are essential, the Wholesale plans usually have capped speeds.
Difference between Telstra’s Retail Vs Wholesale mobile plans (28/4/2025)
| Item | Telstra Retail | Telstra Wholesale |
| Brands | Telstra Direct and Boost Mobile (Not Belong) | Telstra MVNOs like Woolworths and Aldi |
| Claimed Population coverage | 4G – 99.7% 5G – 91% | 4G – 98.8% 5G* – 75% Source) |
| Undisclosed area coverage | 2.6 million square km (33.82% of 7.688 million square km) | 1.7 million square km (21%) |
| Download/Upload | Telstra Uncapped 4G up to 200/50Mbps 5G up to 1Gbps/40Mbps Typically 250/20Mbps (Source) Boost Mobile capped 4G up to 100/40Mbps 5G up between 150/250/40Mbps. Typically, 50/10Mbps | Capped 4G up to 100/40Mbps 5G up between 150/250/40Mbps. Typically, 100/20Mbps (Source) |
| Bands 4G | B3 (1800MHz) B7 (2600MHz) limited areas B28 (700MHz) – also used for 000 emergency calls | Same |
| Bands 5G Requires a 5G plan | N5 (850MHz) low band for closer to 3G speeds at up to 5km from a tower N78 (3500MHz) sub-6 GHz at 5G speeds up to 1.6km from a tower (Source). | Same |
| Support/Outages | Via Telstra/Boost Call Centre or Telstra/Boost App | Woolworths – Olive Chatbot (pretty good) or call 1300 101 234 Aldi – Log in to your account and submit a support form or call 1300 989 000. |
| Price | Telstra Post-paid uncapped 4/5G $65/75/99 for 50/75/99GB Boost Mobile capped $39/49/59/74 for 25/35/45/90 | Woolworths SIM ONLY 4/5G $36/45/54 for 55/95/150GB Aldi $39/39/49/59 for 25/65/120/175GB |
What does this all mean?
From a phone user’s perspective, all plans cover at least Unlimited calls to Australian landlines and Calls/SMS to and from Australian mobiles.
Most MVNOs offer limited-time data bonuses to entice new customers, which we ignore when comparing prices. Buy the base plan that suits your needs and upgrade or downgrade instead of being locked in.
Some MVNOs may offer additional benefits (links are to all Plans)
- Woolworths offers 10% off a monthly grocery shop (maximum value $50), Unlimited international calls and SMS to 22 countries and a 500GB data rollover bank. Overseas roaming is additional.
- Aldi’s plans include standard international calls/SMS to 20 countries. Overseas roaming is additional. Includes data rollover bank.
- Boost Mobile offers unlimited standard calls and SMS to at least 20 international destinations. Overseas roaming is additional. The plan also includes a data rollover bank.
- Telstra offers continuous unused data rollover.
What is best for you?
- If data speed caps are not an issue, Woolworths/Aldi offers far better value. In 99% of cases, you won’t reach anywhere near the maximum download/upload speeds anyway, so that is not an enticement to go to Telstra Retail or Boost.
- If you have 5G access (you live and work where there is coverage), avoid Telstra 5G entirely. You can use a 5G phone with an even cheaper 4G SIM plan.
- With coverage of 2.6 million square kilometres versus 1.7m (the difference is mainly 4G in rural and remote areas and does not affect significant cities/suburbs or regional cities), avoid Telstra.
All Carriers and MVNOs now support VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling. This allows you to use your NBN home Wi-Fi connection to make and receive phone calls. This is important if you live in a Telstra blackspot but have decent Wi-Fi speeds. Telstra recommends using BigPond to enable the service, but we have tested with many other NBN providers—all good. But wait, there is more.
CyberShack’s view – Telstra’s Retail Vs Wholesale mobile plans
This article started when I went to WA for a holiday, taking a Boost Sim (Telstra Retail Network) in one phone and a Woolworths SIM (Telstra Wholesale Network) in an identical phone.
It was to focus on coverage differences from as far north as Exmouth (Ningaloo Reef), in Perth, south to Rottnest Island and then the Indian Pacific train from Perth to Sydney. It was not scientific but empirical testing, to see where identical 5G smartphones with exceptionally strong antenna signal strengths varied. Read all about our readers’ bad experiences with Telstra’s so-called Blue Tick phones.
We also used Network Cell Info Lite App to measure -dBM signal quality and femtowatt/picowatt signal strengths. Readings were taken at 8 AM, 12 PM, 4 PM, and 8 PM and when the train passed a township. See the Telstra Map and the nPerf map compiled by users (accurate as at early 2024).
The 4G test results were almost identical. The slightly higher Telstra average coverage figures include 5G.
Scarily, without 3G anymore (green lines above), there were great swathes of no coverage.
CyberShack’s view: Telstra’s Retail Vs Wholesale mobile plans are about cost, not so much service.
- If you must have 5G, the Telstra Direct Retail Network offers the best uncapped coverage, but at a very much higher cost. Boost is capped at a more reasonable cost.
- Typical users don’t lose much on the Telstra Wholesale network. You can get great value from Aldi and Woolworths (especially with the 10% off shopping offer), and any Telstra Wholesale MVNO will have similar network performance.
Again, we call this map a Telstra fantasy because if you expand on the online version, you will see large areas without coverage.
nperf maps are accurate as they record where users get a usable signal.
As usual, Telstra is invited to respond if any of the information above is incorrect.
22 comments
90 club
Great breakdown of Telstra’s plans! I found it really helpful to see the differences between retail and wholesale offerings. The catches you mentioned, especially around data speed and customer service, are definitely things to consider before making a choice. Thanks for the insights!
Ray Shaw
Our pleasure. What I want to know is why the few other sites don’t ever reveal the details? Could they be afraid of losing advertising revenue? It is nice to be 100% independent.
David
Thanks for the informative article. I switched from the Telstra retail network to Woolworths Mobile about three years ago to save on costs, and while it’s been fine for calls and texts, the difference in data speed is massive. My wife and I travel frequently in our RV, usually staying in towns along the east coast between Victoria and Brisbane. I use my phone to stream YouTube and Netflix to our TV, and the experience has been frustrating on the wholesale network, often not enough data speed to stream smoothly, even when we have good signal bars. Every trip I find myself saying, “That’s it, I’m going back to Telstra.” When we were on the full Telstra retail network, we never had this issue once. This article really helped clarify why.
Ray Shaw
Yes, we have done some more digging. Telstra uses bandwidth slicing to save costs, and the Wholesale network suffers because of that. Be careful, as Telstra has decided to cap its Boost Mobile and Belong speeds at the same level as Woolworths. As an RV user,, think seriously about using Starlink when at home and on the road.
Tim
We moved from Telstra to Exetel that uses Telstra Wholesale. Better actually, as 5G in Batemans Bay is worse than 4G. Before 5G came along we has really good service, 5G turned up and its woefully…still! But I just turned off our 5G and eventually moved from Telstra retail to Exetel Telstra Wholesale and its just as good.
Ray Shaw
Forgetting libel laws, I moved from Telstra and have never been happier. It is there for its shareholders!
Damo
Thanks for compiling this. I’m in Cairns and switched from Aldi to Boost today (July 2024) and was quite surprised to see the mobile data speed plummet!
David
Thanks for the follow-up, Ray. That makes a lot of sense and lines up with what we’ve been experiencing. Appreciate the heads-up about Starlink too—definitely something I’ll be looking into more seriously now.
Ray Shaw
That is interesting. Boost should be faster as Aldi uses the slower Telstra wholesale network. All I can ask is to keep me informed.
Kevin
Thank you for this incredible research. Solidified my choice in using Boost until the others get VoLTE and WiFi Calling.
Ray Shaw
Boost is ahead of most MVNOs but I am looking forward to Woolworth’s roll out of VOLTE and Wi-Fi calling.
Lisa Brown
Thank you for sharing this informative Article
Josh LANG
N5 , 5G band is 850Mhz not 85Mhz
Ray Shaw
Fixed with thanks
Pauline Richardson
Many thanks for this informative and helpful article.
Ray Shaw
Our pleasure
Greg Wood
Thanks for the article. Well done. I use all three Telstra’s (Telstra, Boost and Belong). I am from Western Australia and drove over the Nullarbor and also noticed the difference you mentioned. Last time I checked – Boost only rolled over to the next month. Telstra and Belong roll-over to a cap.
Ray Shaw
Thanks for the response. That Nullarbor coverage is pretty sparce. I suggested to Indian Pacific that StarLink would solve both internet and phone issues (Wi-FI calling) on the train, but they were not interested.
Ben Mills
Great article! I already use Woolies and it hasn’t been that bad except for reaching a limit for sending MMS, I thought that was like free SMS.
Can we have the same article on Internet?
Regards, Ben
Ray Shaw
Thanks, Ben. Let me give you a single piece of sage advice on the internet – Aussie Broadband is so far ahead of the rest with excellent Australian support, faster-sustained domestic/international speeds and fair prices than the rest. Everyone I help move to Aussie raves about it.
But all NBN is supplied by NBN itself. It is how the reseller adds value that counts. In my opinion, Telstra BigPond has by far the worst for support. Here is an interesting article https://www.techguide.com.au/news/internet-news/why-i-sacked-optus-after-25-years-and-it-had-nothing-to-do-with-the-data-breach/ but I get lots of feedback that Vodafone, TPG, Dodo, iiNet and the other big advertisers are pretty bad too.
Stephen knight
Hello Steve here
i have an iPhone 11 and am with Amaysim on $10 a month 4 gig plan. i want to get an apple watch, but Amaysim doesn’t offer support. Can you suggest a phone plan that is similar which also offers apple watch support? Regards Steve
Ray Shaw
Amaysim is owned by Optus and it basically forces you to deal with Optus or Telstra that support the eSIM in the watch. Talk to Optus about Number share https://www.optus.com.au/for-you/support/answer?id=20003 – a combo plan for the watch and phone. I would suggest talking to Telstra but they are so bloody hard to contact. You need a Telstra One Number – details https://www.telstra.com.au/support/mobiles-devices/use-manage-telstra-one-number. It costs $5 a month more but the post-paid 4G Telstra plans are damned expensive to start with.https://www.telstra.com.au/help/critical-information-summaries/personal/mobile/mobile-plans/telstra-mobile-plans.
Please note that Apple Watch is 4G VoLTE only (no 3G UTMA fallback) and from what we hear (we do not review Apple) its phone signal strength is pretty poor compared to the iPhone. Most users are happy with the cheaper Wi-FI/BT version that pairs with the phone and can still make and receive calls when paired.