Telstra, the largest carrier in Australia, has today launched a new webpage on which it reveals an exclusive offering related to Apple Music. The carrier is offering new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus customers, across both 12 month and 24 month contracts, a free year of Apple Music on its Go Mobile plans. This offering is the first of its kind for Apple Music, and also hints at a another first: carrier billing.
AT&T and Beats partnered up early on to offer carrier billing, as well as exclusive family plan pricing, but shortly following Apple’s acquisition of Beats, the partnership with AT&T disintegrated. With carrier billing, Telstra will be able to bill customers directly for Apple Music following the 12 months of free service. This also means that the charge would appear on the user’s Telstra bill, not on any iTunes receipts.
While Telstra has yet to fully confirm that it will offer carrier billing with Apple Music, a note from the terms and conditions of its 12 month free offer implies such:
If you sign up and agree to T&Cs to put Apple Music on your Telstra account this will roll on to a paying subscription at the end of the trial / free period unless you cancel it. You will receive an SMS 3 days prior to rolling over to a paid subscription.
Another piece of evidence supporting Telstra’s plans to fully integrate Apple Music into its repertoire comes in a new login prompt Appel Music presents when you redeem the 12 months of free service. “Your Apple Music membership with Telstra will be linked to your Apple ID, allowing you to listen on your other devices,” the prompt reads.
Apple has already partnered with T-Mobile in the United States to offer uncapped streaming via the carrier as part of tis Music Freedom program. In Australia, Telstra previously had a deal with MOG for an extended free trial and subsequent carrier billing. Spotify offers carrier billing via Sprint in the United States, as well.
Carrier billing would open an even larger market for Apple’s new music streaming service, especially if it expands outside of Australia. It seems likely that Apple is at least making efforts behind the scenes to do so, but nothing is yet confirmed.
Thanks, Beau!
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Nice Try Telstra. But the monthly cost of Apple Music is nothing compared to the cost of going over your data cap, which is extremely limited already. Free streaming of Apple Music would have been a deal, not this. Even with Telstra’s new roll over of $10 for 1GB, if you go over your cap, will pay for the Apple Music subscription in one go.
I’m in the middle of activating Telstra Air at the moment. I have a feeling that will help with the data cap issue, at least in some cases.
You just got given a $288 bonus for doing nothing. You can use it on a desktop on WiFi. Man you guys are experts at whinging. Seriously, you could represent Australia singlehandedly.
*144 – point remains.
I don’t think that’s fair. In any event, it requires a specific contract with Telstra to work, for a phone that is to be replaced in a month or so. If something goes wrong, who do you call? Telstra or Apple? I know who I’d prefer. It would be interesting to see if the data usage calculations in the contract are different to existing plans/rates. Typically when new offers are made, the calculations are changed so that you actually use more (rounding up etc). All it would take is a few longish trips in the car with Apple Music on and you are potentially over your cap.
Nothing is every really free and I just thought it was important to point this out to this that might not look any deeper.
As for Telstra, I use them for mobile because they have the best coverage and signal, and will continue to do so.
This is old news. Screenshots were leaked weeks ago
We have the impression that Apple Music has difficulty in standing out…
When the customer has the choice, even when the application is imposed in the device, he uses the simpler alternatives.