Boost Mobile will soon update all its plans to 5G — but there's a big catch

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The introduction of 5G will also bring capped speeds

Boost Mobile Australia
(Image credit: Boost Mobile)

Australian telco Boost Mobile has announced that it will be introducing access to Telstra's 5G network as a standard across all of its plans, starting from April 4, 2023.

The mobile virtual network operator (or MVNO) had previously made 5G speeds available to customers on a trial basis, but now all of its current 4G customers will be receiving access to 5G — so long as they have a 5G-capable handset.

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Boost Mobile 5G plans (starting April 4, 2023)
RechargeExpiry periodMax download speed
AU$5-AU$157 days150Mbps
AU$20-AU$4028 days150Mbps
AU$5028 days250Mbps
AU$7028 daysUncapped
AU$1006 months150Mbps
AU$150-AU$30012 months150Mbps

Is the upgrade a good thing?

While traditionally wisdom would suggest that upgrading from 4G to 5G is a good thing, that won't necessarily be the case for everyone.

Apart from the fact that most of Boost Mobile's plans will not take advantage of 5G's full speed capabilities (which are said to reach download speeds of 1Gbps), the quality of your connection will depend entirely on how close you are to one of Telstra's 5G towers. 

While Boost Mobile's 150Mbps speed cap is slightly faster than what most 4G connections are able to achieve (usually around 100Mbps), 5G connections are less consistent — although the technology's shorter wavelength allows it to transfer more data than a 4G LTE connection, it does so at a trade-off to range, which could mean a slower experience in some situations.

Chances are that most Boost Mobile customers won't notice much of a difference. With that in mind, those who do experience a drop in speed should consider disabling 5G in their phone's connection settings.

Stephen Lambrechts
Stephen Lambrechts

Stephen Lambrechts is the Managing Editor of Tom's Guide AU and has written professionally across the categories of tech, film, television and gaming for the last 15 years. Before Tom's Guide, he spent several years as a Senior Journalist at TechRadar, had a brief stint as Editor in Chief at Official Xbox Magazine Australia, and has written for such publications as APC, TechLife Australia, T3, FilmInk, AskMen, Daily Telegraph and IGN. He's an expert when it comes to smartphones, TVs, gaming and streaming. In his spare time, he enjoys watching obscure horror movies on physical media, keeping an eye on the latest retro sneaker releases and listening to vinyl. Occasionally, he also indulges in other non-hipster stuff, like hiking.