Telstra hikes line rental charges

Australian fixed line incumbent Telstra has reportedly increased the monthly line rental fee for a number of its residential and business tariffs. According to iTnews, Telstra residential customers signed up to its HomeLine, Plus, Advanced and Together plans, along with BusinessLine subscribers, will see monthly access charges rise by up to AUD2 (USD1.83). Bundled tariffs will, however, be unaffected by the changes, while Telstra’s HomeLine Budget and Telstra’s Pensioner Discount scheme will also remain untouched. Commenting on the decision, a statement from the operator was cited as saying: ‘We understand that there is never a good time to make changes to our prices and we don’t make these decisions lightly … We spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year operating and maintaining our phone services so our pricing needs to reflect this ongoing investment, as well as the rising cost of our own business inputs such as labour, petrol and materials.’