Boost Mobile the latest telco to increase plan prices

More mobile price hikes are on the horizon, with even low-cost and challenger brands revamping plans and increasing monthly costs for new and existing customers.

Popular prepaid telco Boost Mobile has confirmed it will tweak pricing across most of its SIM-only recharge range from July 4, 2023. 28-day plans will increase by as much as $5 per recharge, but there is a silver lining: the telco is also bumping up data inclusions as compensation.

Boost Mobile plan prices: what’s changing?

Boost Mobile is raising prices for most of its SIM-only postpaid plans, which currently begin at $10 per 7-day recharge for 3GB of data. From July 4, prices will start at $12 for a 7-day plan, with most 28-day plans going up by $2 to $5 each recharge.

A Boost Mobile spokesperson told Canstar Blue that the changes were made after an internal price review.

“As you might imagine, this is not a decision that has been taken lightly by anyone at Boost Mobile, which has done its utmost to limit the price increases,” the spokesperson said.

“Boost Mobile remains deeply committed to delivering ongoing great value for Australians, and it continues to offer this with full coverage of the Telstra 3G, 4G and 5G mobile networks. This includes access for less than $20 per month when buying a $230 recharge with 12-month expiry.

“We would also like to point out Boost Mobile’s $300, 12-month expiry option is not changing, and offers the perfect balance between price, data, network and convenience for the equivalent of $25 a month. ”

Here’s a full list of which recharge options are changing from July.

All plans will continue to include unlimited standard national talk and text in Australia, along with existing extras such as data rollover to the following recharge, unlimited standard international calls to 20 countries, and access to 4G and 5G networks where available. 5G-ready plans will still have a download speed cap of up to 150Mbps or 250Mbps depending on your recharge (with the exception of the $70 plan, which will remain uncapped).

The following table shows selected published Boost Mobile plans on Canstar Blue’s database, listed in order of cost, from the lowest to highest and then by data allowance, largest to smallest. Use our comparison tool to see plans from a range of other providers. This is a selection of products which may contain links to a referral partner.

Does more data really mean more value?

While customers will be paying slightly more per recharge, most plans will now include more data for your dollars. For example, the $20 recharge currently includes 5GB of data, which works out at $4 per gigabyte. Going forward, this will change to $22 for 7GB, or roughly $3.15 each gigabyte — so while you’re paying an extra $2, you’re getting more value on a per-gigabyte basis.

You’ll get a similar result with Boost Mobile’s $30 recharge with 20GB of data, which breaks down to $1.50 for each included gigabyte. From July 4, this will be $35 for 25GB, meaning customers will then pay $1.40 per gigabyte on every 28-day recharge. Boost Mobile’s $40 and $50 plans follow the same pattern, while the $200 long-expiry 12-month option will also see per-gigabyte data costs drop.

Whether this slightly-cheaper cost per gigabyte is worth it will depend on how much data you actually need and use. If you’re happy on the existing $30 recharge, and never go over the 20GB data inclusion, an extra 5GB is unlikely to be a big incentive to stick around and pay $5 more every 28 days.

Of course, it’s good news for users on Boost Mobile’s $70 plan, which will go from 65GB to 90GB of included data per recharge with no price change. The $70 option is the only 28-day Boost Mobile plan that isn’t increasing in price, instead receiving a generous data boost of 25GB per recharge.

Alongside giving its current SIM plan suite a data and price makeover, Boost Mobile is also launching a new, online-only 12-month plan with a hefty data allowance. From July 4, customers can get 365GB of data for $365 with a year-long expiry, working out to be around 30.4GB and $30.40 on a per-month basis.

If you’re looking for a best-value option at around the $30 monthly mark, you may want to consider committing to Boost’s $365 12-month recharge, instead of renewing your plan every 28 days. However, be aware that you’ll need to pay the full price upfront, and you may need to ration your data use to avoid burning through it all early.

Are other telcos raising phone plan prices?

Boost is far from the only telco making sweeping end-of-financial-year price changes. Postpaid SIM-only provider Moose Mobile recently updated its own plan range, upping the entry-level plan price from $8.80 for 1GB of data each month, to $15 for 6GB. Several Moose Mobile plans have risen by a reasonable 20c per month; for example, the great-value 25GB plan was formerly $23.80, but is now $24 monthly.

Moose Mobile’s biggest plan has also received a significant data increase, going from $44.80 per month for 70GB, to a rounder $45 for 100GB. The telco has also added data banking to all plans of $24 per month and above, allowing customers to roll over up to 200GB of leftover data to use at a later date.

Besides smaller names, the most-publicised recent price change announcement is from Telstra, with the telco giant confirming it will increase costs on SIM-only postpaid plans from July 4. We’ve broken down what’s changing in detail here, but existing customers may pay up to $6 per month more for the same plan (that’s an extra $72 per year).

While Vodafone and Optus also reassess their pricing annually, neither one has confirmed plans to update their mobile range any time soon. Optus’ last price change was in August 2022, while Vodafone relaunched its postpaid options in January, 2023.

Concerned about other household costs? See which energy providers have confirmed price rises for July 1.

Should I switch to a cheaper mobile plan?

There’s never a bad time to shop around for a cheaper deal — and if you’re hoping to stick with prepaid, there are plenty of low-cost options on the market. Boost Mobile is still a competitive choice, despite the upcoming price changes (and especially if you want Telstra 5G coverage at a lower price than what you’ll pay with Telstra directly). But if you do want to see what else is available, you can find a range of SIM-only prepaid and postpaid plans below.