Mobile & mobile broadband
Comstel mobile and mobile broadband plans, explained
Six plans, three contract terms, one simple rule: the longer the term, the lower the monthly price. Here’s the full pricing, what running on the Telstra network gives you, and how to work out which plan your business actually needs.
Comstel sells two ranges on the mobile network. Comstel Mobile plans are for your people — phones in pockets, out on the road. Comstel Data plans are mobile broadband 5G: data-only SIMs for your equipment, from EFTPOS terminals to failover routers.
Both ranges use the same three sizes — Starter, Professional and Premium — and the same three contract terms. The plan itself is identical whichever term you choose. Only the monthly price moves, and it moves by a fixed amount: $2.50 a month less on 24 months, $5 a month less on 36 months.
The two ranges
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Comstel Mobile
Voice and data for staff handsets. Starter 29GB, Professional 65GB, Premium 180GB. Priced per service, per month.
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Comstel Data — Mobile Broadband 5G
Data-only SIMs for equipment. Starter 15GB, Professional 40GB, Premium 400GB. Priced per service, per month.
Comstel Mobile pricing
Per service, per month. The 36-month column is the lowest rate available.
| Comstel Mobile plan | Month-to-month | 24 months | 36 months ★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter29GB per month | $40.00 | $37.50 | $35.00 |
| Professional65GB per month | $50.00 | $47.50 | $45.00 |
| Premium180GB per month | $75.00 | $72.50 | $70.00 |
Comstel Data pricing (Mobile Broadband 5G)
Data-only. Same three terms, same structure.
| Comstel Data plan | Month-to-month | 24 months | 36 months ★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter15GB per month | $30.00 | $27.50 | $25.00 |
| Professional40GB per month | $45.00 | $42.50 | $40.00 |
| Premium400GB per month | $85.00 | $82.50 | $80.00 |
Month-to-month has no fixed term. On a 24 or 36-month agreement your monthly rate is held for the length of the term. Comstel Data Premium is where most businesses land when a data SIM is carrying real traffic — a failover router protecting a whole office, or a site with no fixed line at all.
How the three terms compare
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Month-to-month
No fixed term, and the highest monthly price of the three. Useful for short projects, contractors, or a service you genuinely expect to cancel inside a year.
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24 months
$2.50 a month less than month-to-month. That’s $60 back per service across the two years.
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36 months ★
$5 a month less, on every plan in both ranges. $180 back per service across the term, and the rate is locked for the full three years.
Why most businesses take the 36 months
- $5Less per month, per service, on every plan in both ranges
- $180Back per service across a 36-month term
- $2,700Saved on a fleet of ten mobiles and five data SIMs
The maths doesn’t change with plan size
$5 a month × 36 months = $180 back, per service. That figure is the same whether you’re on the cheapest Data Starter plan or the largest Mobile Premium plan — it scales with headcount, not with data size.
The other half of the argument isn’t the discount, it’s the certainty. On a 36-month agreement your per-service rate is fixed for the length of the term. Mobile is one of the few line items in a business budget that can be set once and left alone for three years, and for a finance team building a rolling forecast that predictability is worth something on its own.
A fixed term is still a commitment. If your headcount is genuinely volatile, month-to-month exists for a reason — and $5 is a fair price for the freedom.
Most businesses, though, keep their mobile fleet longer than three years without ever thinking about it, and end up paying the flexibility premium on services they were never going to cancel.
Running on the Telstra network
Comstel Mobile and Comstel Data services run on Telstra’s mobile network. That matters more for a business fleet than it does for a single personal phone, because the places your people work are rarely the places networks are optimised for — industrial estates, basements, regional job sites, the gap between two towns on a delivery run.
Coverage and 5G
Telstra reports that its 5G network now reaches more than 80% of the Australian population. Getting 5G speeds requires two things: being inside a 5G coverage area, and using a handset or router that supports 5G. Older devices still connect — they just won’t reach 5G speeds. Outside 5G areas, services fall back to 4G automatically. Nothing needs switching on and nobody notices except in a speed test.
What actually affects your speed
Carrier speed claims describe the network’s ceiling, not the number you’ll see on a given afternoon. Real-world throughput moves with how far you are from the base station, how many other people are on that tower at that moment, the building you’re standing in, and the capability of the device itself. Worth knowing before you size a plan around speed: for most business use — email, cloud apps, job management software, voice — consistency of coverage matters far more than peak megabits.
Network-level security is not device-level security
Telstra runs security operations that monitor its network around the clock for threats. That’s genuine protection, and it comes with the network you’re already paying for.
It is not, however, the same thing as protecting the device. Network monitoring doesn’t stop an employee installing a malicious app, entering credentials into a convincing phishing page, or joining an unsafe public WiFi network at an airport. Device-level protection is a separate layer, and it’s the layer most small businesses skip. If your team’s phones hold email, customer records or banking access, ask us about adding managed endpoint security across the fleet.
Five things worth checking on any business mobile plan
Price per month is the easy comparison. These are the details that decide whether a plan actually suits a business — and they’re the ones people tend to discover after they’ve signed.
- What happens when you run out of dataThere are two models in the market and they behave completely differently on your bill. Under the first, exceeding your allowance triggers excess data charges — the plan price is a floor rather than a ceiling, and one heavy month produces a bill nobody budgeted for. Under the second, exceeding your allowance slows your speed instead of charging you: you stay connected, the bill stays the same, but large file transfers and high-definition video become impractical until the cycle resets. For a business that values a predictable monthly cost, the second model is usually the safer one. Ask us which applies to the plan you’re considering.
- Whether data can be shared across the fleetSizing every service individually means over-buying, because you have to cover each person’s worst month. Data sharing pools the allowance across multiple services on one account, so the sales rep who barely leaves the office effectively covers the tech who tethers a laptop on site. Where pooling is available it often lets you sit the whole team a size lower than you otherwise would — a real saving on top of the term discount.
- eSIM or physical SIMAn eSIM is a digital SIM built into the device rather than a plastic card you post out. For a business the practical advantage is speed: a new starter can be connected without waiting on delivery, and a lost handset can be replaced the same day. Most handsets released since about 2020 support eSIM, though devices bought overseas sometimes won’t work with an Australian eSIM. eSIM also lets one handset carry two numbers, which is how a lot of people keep a work line and a personal line on the same phone without carrying two devices.
- What happens when someone travelsOverseas use is almost never included by default. On most Australian plans you need to add a roaming pass before your service will work abroad at all, and it’s charged per day of use, typically with its own daily data allowance. If anyone in your team travels for work, sort this out before the trip rather than during it — it’s a small, predictable cost when planned and an unpleasant surprise when it isn’t.
- What the contract actually locksA term commitment on a SIM-only plan is straightforward: you agree to keep the service for the term in exchange for a lower monthly rate. Be clear on whether a plan is genuinely SIM-only or whether a handset repayment has been folded into the monthly figure, because those are two separate commitments that often get quoted as one number. Every Comstel plan on this page is SIM-only — the price you see is the service, with no device repayment built in.
Choosing a data size
For staff mobiles
The honest way to size a mobile plan is to look at the last three months of actual usage rather than guessing. The pattern is usually clearer than people expect — a small group of heavy users and a long tail of staff who barely touch their allowance.
- Comstel Mobile Starter (29GB) suits office-based staff who are on WiFi most of the day and use mobile data between locations.
- Comstel Mobile Professional (65GB) suits people genuinely out on the road — sales, service techs, site supervisors — running maps, email, job apps and calls all day.
- Comstel Mobile Premium (180GB) suits heavy users, or anyone who regularly tethers a laptop because there’s no other connection where they’re working.
You don’t have to put everyone on the same plan. Different plans and different terms can sit on the same account, so it’s normal to have most of the team on Starter or Professional and a handful of heavy users on Premium.
For equipment
Data-only sizing depends entirely on the job the SIM is doing.
- Comstel Data Starter (15GB) covers low-traffic devices: an EFTPOS terminal, a tablet used for forms and job sign-offs, monitoring equipment that reports in periodically.
- Comstel Data Professional (40GB) covers a device doing real work — a shared tablet, a site camera, or a backup SIM that carries a small team through an outage without anyone rationing.
- Comstel Data Premium (400GB) covers a SIM acting as a primary or full-office connection: a failover router protecting a whole site, or a location with no fixed line to fall back to.
Worth knowing
A data-only SIM sitting in a failover router keeps EFTPOS, cloud phones and card payments trading when the fixed line drops. From $25 a month on a 36-month term — and on the months nothing goes wrong it costs $25 and does nothing, which is rather the point.
Common questions
Can I mix plans and terms on one account?
Yes. Comstel Mobile and Comstel Data services, in any combination of sizes and contract terms, can sit side by side on the same account and the same bill.
What’s the difference between Comstel Mobile and Comstel Data?
Comstel Mobile plans are for handsets used by people. Comstel Data plans are mobile broadband 5G — data-only SIMs that go into equipment rather than phones. The pricing structure and the three contract terms are the same across both.
Is the 36-month discount really the same on every plan?
Yes. Every plan in both ranges is exactly $5 a month cheaper on 36 months and $2.50 a month cheaper on 24 months, compared with month-to-month.
Do I need a 5G phone to use these plans?
No. A device without 5G will connect on 4G and work normally — you simply won’t see 5G speeds. 5G also requires being inside a 5G coverage area.
Can I keep my existing numbers?
Yes. Existing mobile numbers can be transferred across. Tell us how many services are involved and we’ll handle the port.
How do I work out what we’re using now?
Send us a recent bill. We’ll go through your current services and usage and tell you which plans and terms fit — including where a smaller plan would do the job.
Not sure how much data your team actually uses?
Book a free consultation. We’ll go through your current bills and usage, then tell you which plan and which term makes sense — including if a smaller one would do.
Get in touch
Tell us what you need and we’ll get back to you — usually the same business day.
Enquiry received
A real Australian-based specialist will be in touch the same business day.
Prices shown are per service, per month. Comstel Mobile and Comstel Data services run on the Telstra mobile network. Coverage, 5G availability and network speeds vary with location, distance from the base station, local conditions, the number of concurrent users and your device. Coverage and 5G reach figures are as published by Telstra. Plan inclusions, data-sharing availability, eSIM support and international roaming arrangements should be confirmed for your specific services before you sign. Plans are subject to our Fair Use Policy and coverage at your location.
