I thought I'd share an offer I recently received from Telstra - free speed boost upgrade (to 100/50) as a current Telstra non NBN HFC Cable customer.
I am on a monthly plan 100/5 HFC from Telstra for $89, and I was offered a free upgrade to their 100/40 Unlimited NBN over HFC for $90 (no contract, no set up fees, no equipment fees) which is normally $30.
Currently Telstra offer their Standard Plus NBN 50/25 for $90 on a 24 month plan.
A $30 fee normally applies to upgrade to their Premium NBN 100/500
I rang Telstra whether this free upgrade offer applied to every one of their HFC non NBN customers, or whether it was targeted at me, and the sales representative said they are currently authorized to offer half price on the $30 speed boost to all HFC customers.
Note that I spoke to another rep just a few days ago about an Apple watch an iPhone plan from Telstra, which is when I was offered the $30 upgrade for free, if I switched to their NBN network (and this sales representative specifically told me that she was offering this to me because they are authorized to do so, unlike the pushy sales rep who told me they're authorized to offer only 50% off)
I said I wasn't ready (because of some of the horror stories I read about the NBN on Whirlpool) but I asked for a reference number so that I could get this deal if I decided to switch (I'll have to do it in the next year anyway as the old network is being switched off).
I think they offer this speed upgrade to encourage existing HFC cable to switch over now to their NBN network, which (even with the free speed boost) is more expensive than their 100/5 HFC unlimited plans, so there is a disincentive for current customers to switch.
With the free speed boost it is far more attractive to me to pay the $1 extra to increase my upload speed from 5 to 50 MBps.
You also get free phone line with free calls to landline and mobile calls in Australia, which makes this deal competitive with other providers (they also offer one free month for new customers but I'm not sure this free month would apply to me as a current Telstra internet customer).
Ps. This reminds me of the free speed boost upgrade from 50 to 100 MBps for their HFC customers which they offered a few months ago, but is now available on the NBN.
Pps. Note that I think this offer is not advertised, so you're unlikely to find it online.
The only way is to ring their sales department and see if you can get the speed boost for free, and say that you're not interested in half price off, because it's still more than what you pay now for essentially the same speed except a slower upload speed (so why switch?).
Ppps. that second rep was really pushy and rude too, I told him at the start, and several times during the conversation, that I was not ready to switch (especially at only 50% off), but that I just wanted to confirm the deal before I posted it online.
In the end he confirmed only 50% off, tried to get me to switch to their NBN (even started to play me their T&Cs which I would have to agree), but wasn't listening to what I was ringing about.
In the end he realised he wasn't going to upsell me anything, so he just told me that "in the future it's best not to call them about these things, until I was ready to switch, otherwise I was wasting not just my time, but theirs too", then hung up on me!
So I filed a complaint.
I got this ages ago, by joining NBN and mentioning their NBN satisfaction guarantee, where you can cancel without penalties. Instead of cancelling, they gave me the free speed boost. I was satisfied with this. Currently paying $90 for unlimited internet and 100/50 speeds.