Boosting the Boost brand and your tech questions answered!

The EFTM podcast, Talkback Technology.

Got a question about tech?

Trev's here to help.

Not sure what to buy.

Ask Trev.

Australia's number one Talkback Technology podcast.

I was gobsmacked.

I spoke to you on the Tuesday.

Thursday afternoon, there's this lovely courier man of me back door with a parcel for

me.

Just to thank you so much because whatever your involvement, you truly got some magical

powers and don't ever lose it again.

Great to have you company, thank you for listening.

Another episode of the EFTM podcast.

The final episode for 2025, Merry Christmas everyone.

Thank you so much for listening and it's been an absolute pleasure doing the show

this year.

I've never done it without the help of producer Rob who has just lined it all up and made it

all happen and made my life a little bit more streamlined on a Tuesday when I sit down to

take your calls and it means a lot and I appreciate it.

So Merry Christmas to producer Rob and his family and to everyone listening and your

families.

I hope you have a great Christmas.

I hope you get a little bit of personal time and a bit of family time and can balance

it all out ahead of the new year.

Of course the new year for us means CES, so Jackson and I leave on December 31 and we'll

meet Stig in LA and we'll head off to CES for what, just on the face of it looks like it's

a pretty big show.

That's all I'll say.

I can't say anything else but there's some pretty big brands that you've never heard

of before coming to CES and it's going to be cool.

So we'll have that covered on the Today Show, on EFTM and of course on Tubo's

Talking Tech throughout January.

So just listen in.

The EFTM podcast will be back on the 13th of January to talk about the new year and

keep taking your calls and then we'll push on taking your calls throughout the year of

course here on the EFTM podcast.

Today we're going to talk to Boost Mobile's CEO Bobby Gildens and he's been in charge.

He's had the feet under the desk for about a year now.

It's been about a year since Telstra bought Boost Mobile, wrote a big check to Peter

Adderton and Paul Keating for the Challenger brand that's been around for 25 years.

But how's it changed?

What's different?

And is it still a good deal?

And are they going to stick around in supercars now that Peter Adderton's not around?

Big questions for the people of Boost Mobile.

So we'll talk to Bobby, the CEO, shortly, plus your calls and try and help you out

with any questions you've got any time.

And that's all that's all I've got for you.

I mean, I hope you have a great Chrissy.

So let's get cracking on the final episode of EFTM for 2025.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Great to have your company get in touch any time.

I would love to hear from you.

Carolyn's on the line today.

Carolyn, how can I help you?

Oh, fine. Thank you.

I just have a 10 year old grandson who'd be living the day before Christmas

and we wanted to get him some new noise cancelling headphones.

Mainly to wear at the football because he loves to listen to the commentary

and but he's not keen on when it's really, really, really loud.

Right. So we thought we'd get him some headphones

and we just couldn't work out which were the best ones to get for him.

So is that the primary use for them at the footy noisy crowd

and listening to, you know, that's the main one.

Interesting, interesting.

Because often you said he's 10 now.

Yes, he'll be 11 on the 23rd.

I mean, is he when we say expecting, obviously, kids don't know what they're going to get.

But is he expecting a nice cool pair of headphones?

Do you think or does he want to like or does he just want a solution to that problem?

Well, he doesn't actually know.

It just might when he went with his father and his aunt

a couple of times, particularly when Colin would apply in the members.

It's very, very loud and and he loves to listen to the commentary.

He's very good on the statistics and things.

And we thought if we got him some headphones,

he could tune it into his watch or his father's or TV or phone or something

and listen to the commentary as well.

But it would cut out the absolute screaming.

Yes. So the reason I say all that is to say that noise cancelling

is is actually a really horrible label for these things.

Because I sometimes, you know, I'm talking to people and they put them on.

They go, I can still hear the people around me.

I'm like, yes, because it doesn't it doesn't make for silence.

It works amazing on a plane

because they're engineered to, you know, to cut out that white noise

that is, you know, the humming, whirring sound of a jet engine, right?

But, you know, if I'm wearing them right here, sitting now

and my kids are beside me, I'll definitely hear them talking.

And so I'll be honest, I've never used them in a loud

like concert or football style environment.

And I worry they don't cut much.

They definitely would cut something, right?

There's no doubt in my mind they will cut something out.

But I just worry about the expectation

that they will really work to dampen that noise.

So which was all I was thinking was like a bunnings.

Sounds ridiculous, but bunnings have earmuffs, right?

So I think so forget headphones in your mind for a minute and think earmuffs.

So earmuffs are designed to cut out as much noise as they can

through simply being over your ears, right?

So they've got a good cap around them to plug your plug your head.

And there are Bluetooth earmuffs.

So you can pair them with your with your phone, as you mentioned.

So they may be the best solution to

being able to put up with the crowd and also listen to the footy.

At the same time, I would love to know whether a pair of, you know,

JBL or Sony actual noise cancelling headphones

would cut out the noise that you're looking for.

So it's mainly to it's mainly to take the edge off.

It doesn't have to cut it out completely just to take the edge off it.

And, you know, you're going to buy something here

that you don't want to be a one off use like at the footy, right?

So a pair of headphones, if he enjoys music and things like that,

he'll get a good use out of them.

So I rather than tell you a brand to look at,

here's what I want you to look at or you and your kids and whoever are buying them.

There's with earphones that go over your head, you know,

the strap over your head and the big things on your ears.

There's two types. There's on ear and over ear.

And you can tell the difference because on ear ones, the pad, the little cushion

actually sits on your ear, it squashes your ear, right?

Whereas over ear, the hole in the middle of the pad is big enough

for your ear to fit in.

And so the pad goes all around your ear

and that creates a little bit of a seal, which will only of itself.

It'll dampen the noise.

And then when you turn on noise cancelling, it will it will do even more.

So I want to make sure that you get over ear.

All right, over ear, over ear and you're going to want to pick them up

and hold them at JB's or wherever you go to look at the little cup on the ear

and go, yeah, that's that's big enough to go over his ear.

See, when you start looking at I'm on the JB Hi-Fi website right now.

And it's really interesting.

There's a set of JBL, they're called 720 BTs.

OK, they're wireless over ear headphones.

And the next and then $99.

The next next pair along are on ear headphones.

OK, and if you look at both those, the the two different products

from JBL at around $100 at JB Hi-Fi, you'll see the difference.

The cup is smaller.

You can just see it in the photos.

It's a smaller thing, so it's going to be on his ear.

So those are that's the difference between on ear and over ear.

And then obviously what we could do is then you just spent.

I don't know what the budget is for the young man for an 11 year old.

This one something he's birthday is two days before Christmas.

So we just want something that's going to be good.

Then then the first pair that I see on

on on the JB Hi-Fi website.

I don't know if you've got a pen, but there's two two pairs I'd have you have you look at.

The first one are the Sony.

They're called W H as in W for white, H for Harry.

Then the dash C H 720.

So they are Wallace noise cancelling over ear tick, tick, tick.

They're 145 bucks.

Then there are the JBL tune 770.

That's the brand Wallace JBL.

What was the JBL?

As you know, while it's adaptive noise cancelling over ear headphones,

they're probably going to be a step better than the Sony's in my view,

just because they're adaptive noise cancelling.

But same price.

So I think 150 bucks gets you what you want at JB Hi-Fi.

Sounds perfect.

So what about the ones at Bunnings?

Were they?

Well, they're going to be earmuffs.

You know, they're going to they're not going to be the sort of thing

he's going to want to wear.

Exactly.

They're not going to be the sort of thing

he's going to want his mates to see him wearing.

No, true. Fair enough.

No, we'll go for the other ones.

What's the little fella's name?

Henry.

Well, he's hoping Henry gets a great joy from from whatever you end up buying him.

But have a look at those two models.

And I don't think you'll find him something great.

Thank you very much.

He loves his football.

So is he a pies for you?

And is he? Did you say?

Oh, no, no, he's a Melbourne supporter.

Oh, OK.

He goes. OK.

Yeah, he goes to the demons.

All right, yeah, well, my Colin would play Melbourne.

It's so very, very loud.

Get him a black pair and then get some maybe some some demons

colours to kind of stick on the side of him or something.

Be cool. Oh, OK.

Excellent. Terrific.

All right. Good on you, Carolyn.

Great to hear from you.

Thanks a lot. OK.

My pleasure. Good stuff.

It's a tough one because it's not the easiest thing to do.

Not the easiest thing to shop for either.

But hopefully we find the little man something very, very cool

and he can enjoy the footy in a little bit more peace.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Great to have you company and we'd love to hear from you.

Oh, four, double seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven.

Wayne's on the longer day, Wayne.

Morning, Trevor. How are you?

Mate, very well. What can I do for you?

Yeah, my dad is almost 90 years of age.

He lives independently.

Family is close by, but obviously can't be with him all the time.

So we're looking into getting him a monitor that can contact us

if he has a fall or something like that.

And there's a lot out there on the market

and we're just getting confused just looking at him.

Yeah, there is.

Look, I think it's a really important thing to talk about

in terms of, I think, what expectations there are for the product.

So I'm always nervous to recommend these things

because obviously there are variables to everything.

So, for example, you know,

a device that doesn't have back to base monitoring

because obviously there's really dedicated medical alert alarms

that exist that can be worn around the neck,

you know, like a chain that can be pressed,

they can detect fall, they go back to base,

all those kind of things.

Then there's your consumer products,

like the Space Talk Seniors Watch or the Apple Watch

that have these features and functions.

And they're amazing.

And without question, they are saving lives.

But I just want to be very clear that, you know,

everything comes with a risk

that it's either not being worn at the time

or it's gone flat to, you know,

that's my biggest challenge with these things.

We're talking about getting an Apple Watch for my aunt

who's intellectually disabled.

And look, I think it'd be a great way to monitor her heart,

but I just want to make sure

someone's going to charge it for her every day

and make sure she's wearing it at the right time.

So things like that are critical.

Now, the good thing is you can set up an Apple Watch

for another person on your device.

So does the person we're talking about

have an iPhone or any smartphone?

No, Dad's a bit basic in what his phone preference is.

Has he bloody well got an old flip phone?

Is he entitled to that?

And what about you? What do you use?

So, yeah, I want an iPhone.

So you can buy an Apple Watch

and then when you go through the setup process,

it says, is this for you or a family member?

And then you go through this process.

There's basically family member

or student essentially approach to these things.

So what that allows you to do

is set up a connectivity to it.

You know, there's always a direct link to your phone.

You want to make sure some things are turned off

like phone calls and stuff like that,

but the alerts is what matters.

And the Watch's cellular connectivity

means that you're paying five bucks a month

for it to be connected to the internet,

but it's connected no matter where they are,

as long as they're in mobile range.

But if they have a phone, it will call triple zero

and it will alert the emergency contacts

that are listed.

That's what you want.

I mean, there are a bunch of products,

but I really don't think there's any better product

than the Apple Watch out there.

Good thing is you don't need the absolute,

you don't need an Apple Watch Ultra.

I think you'll find Apple Watch SE,

which has also been upgraded,

has pretty much all the features you might want

from an Apple Watch in that sense.

I'm just trying to think what the differences were

because they only just launched the SE third generation

and you compare that to the 11th generation

of your traditional Apple Watch.

The third gen SE is doing high and low rate,

heart rate notifications, irregular rhythm notifications.

It doesn't do blood oxygen levels.

It doesn't have the ECG app.

Now, I would say to you,

the likelihood of your dad doing an ECG on the Apple Watch

might be low, but if you were with him,

it is an amazing feature.

All you got to do is look at it,

you go to the feature and then you put your thumb

and index finger on the watch and it does it.

It's amazing, but apart from that,

it does fall detection, crash detection.

Yeah, just can't go as deep in the water.

There's very minimal compromises.

I think blood oxygen level and ECG

are the two compromises you make by getting an SE

instead of a series 11,

but the price difference is $400.

So the cellular version of the SE is $489.

So it would be a very, very good investment, I think.

Yeah, yeah.

OK, yeah, because it's only others had these subscription models

that were a bit scary that, yeah, so...

Well, you're essentially got to have a subscription here

because you've got to add it to your...

Which telco are you with?

So we are through Telstra.

So you'll have to add an eSIM to it.

So it's got that connectivity.

I don't need to give you alerts, though,

because it will call triple zero without a SIM plan.

So it will do those things without a SIM plan,

but you just won't be able to kind of remotely get access

to any data from it and things like that.

No, and that sounds the gown.

Yeah, it's a cracker, mate.

Well worth a look, and, you know,

if you've got an Apple store nearby,

go and talk to them about it

and they'll help you through,

and I think you'll find the Apple Watch

is a pretty great solution for that.

All right, Triv, appreciate your advice.

Mate, my pleasure. Have a great Chrissy.

You too. Take care.

Cheers, mate. Any time. No worries at all.

Look, I'll be honest, I haven't done that,

and I am desperate to set it up now for Anishelle

because what I don't know, I know that it will do the full

detection triple zero calls and all that stuff,

but what I don't know is how much information

I can get from it remotely when it's set up

on the eSIM plan versus it being in the same home

and room by Bluetooth.

Like, can we see the health data?

That's what I want to know.

So I haven't tested that stuff out,

so hopefully I get to test that in a little while.

Great heavy company, and I'd love you to get in touch

any time you want.

Go to eftm.com and click Ask Trev.

We can send us a text. Good day, Jen.

Good day, Trev. How are you going, mate?

Really, really good. What can I do for you?

I'm good.

Trev, I've got a really technical question for you.

All right, let's go.

Right, I'm currently looking at either a GoPro camera

or the Meta sunglasses cameras.

Wow, that's a very good kind of comparison question.

So the big question is, what are you hoping to film?

I'm hoping to film.

I'm going to Europe next year on holiday,

and I want to basically record my time back home

because I haven't been back home for 13 years

and want to make a lot of memories.

Do you use social media, Instagram, for example?

I use Instagram. I use Facebook.

So it's an interesting one,

and you've got a smartphone, obviously.

You've got a smartphone you carry around with you.

Yes, I've just bought an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Oh, wow.

So I would argue in your traditional going home

to visit family and see the sights

that I haven't seen in a long time,

I would argue that your smartphone is going to take

the majority of the, shall we say, high quality memory.

So if the family is going to take a family photo,

someone's going to snap it with an iPhone.

If you're going to stand in front of Buckingham Palace,

you're going to take it with an iPhone.

If you're going to take a video of the candles being blown out

on someone's camera, you're going to take it with an iPhone.

Does a GoPro add to that? Not really.

What a GoPro does is allows you to maybe put it on a selfie stick

and hold it out from a distance

or put it on a helmet while you ride a lime bike

around London, you know, those kind of things, right?

Yeah.

But you know what?

The Meta glasses, unbelievable for capturing those moments

without thought.

I was going to say my sister got married back in August.

She's actually a Meta employee

and one of her bosses actually streamed her wedding tours

here in Australia via the Meta sunglasses.

Unbelievable.

I went to America with my family in March or April this year.

Two weeks were away.

And I committed to essentially being off my phone

for as much as I could while I was over there.

I didn't say I wasn't going to use it,

but I just wanted to be in the moment a little bit more.

So I took my Meta Ray bands.

I linked them to my Instagram account

and I took a film camera.

Yeah.

And I took film photos for most of the trip

because I just wanted to snap the memory

and not worry about the memory.

The film photos were horrible.

Some were amazing.

Probably 20% of them were good photos of memory level.

But what I did, we went to Dodger Stadium

or we went to the Houston Space Center.

I looked up and I said, hey Meta,

take a photo and share it on Instagram.

And what you hear in your ear is a little

like a photo shutter.

And then you hear this share to Instagram

and you say yes.

And instantly that photo is on your Instagram stories.

And it's such a great way of sharing the memories.

And your Instagram stories can be then archived.

You could make a little collection.

It's called on your profile of the trip home.

But you can also, you don't have to share them online.

You can just say, hey Meta, take a photo.

Hey Meta, take a video.

And you snap those memories.

My only advice is be careful when you're wearing a hat

because my hat was always kind of visible in the photo.

But it would tell me that.

It would say a block of view obscured by a hat.

Stuff like that.

It's very smart.

And the ability to stand in front of something

and say, hey Meta, what am I looking at?

And it takes a photo and tells you what you're looking at

is amazing.

Right.

Okay.

So the only thing I found was the sound was a bit

hit and miss on with the sunglasses when any audio.

As a listener on that live stream, for example?

Was while during the stream.

Yes.

They're not made for that.

Let's be real.

They're not made for that.

So I did a live stream when I got them and I like walked

from my office to my home and I did a live stream

so that I can understand how it worked and you hear

in your ears, you know, there's a new comment

from this person or whatever.

But my talking totally fine.

No problem at all.

Yeah.

But someone a celebrant, you know, five rows away.

No, it's not made for that.

Yeah.

It's not made for that at all.

So it's not made to record the sound of, you know,

something at the other side of the room.

It's made to record what you're saying and your commentary

of something.

So sound, it'll capture the ambient sound of the area

like waves crashing and stuff like that.

But it's not going to be, you know, but also GoPro

is not going to do that brilliantly either.

It'll do it better than the Ray bands.

No doubt GoPro recording that ceremony would have

sounded better, but still not amazing without a

separate microphone attached.

I honestly think on measure, unless you want to tell me

that you are massively into skiing, snowboarding,

mountain biking, surfing, then the GoPro is amazing

for those things, but also so are the Ray bands.

And also here's the thing.

Remember, you don't have to have the Ray bands

on all the time as in turned on.

I wear them as my default sunglasses.

I can't remember the last time I turned them on

because I only turned them on when I want to

take a photo because if you have them on,

they'll last, you know, the whole day

unless you stream a lot of podcasts or music

or take a lot of photos and video.

That's when the battery starts degrading.

So I just leave them off.

And then when I think I want to take a photo,

I switch them on with my with my finger inside

the left arm, turn it on.

It takes 30 seconds.

They boot up.

It says battery 100%.

And then you go, hey, man, take a photo.

Boom, done.

They're amazing.

Would you say the first generation are

just as good as the second generation?

Or would you go for the second generation?

I would argue there's been three generations.

And well, yes, they don't talk.

They were originally called Ray band stories.

Was the first generation.

The meta Ray bands are the ones that I've got.

And the meta Ray bands, too,

which is the second generation you're referring to have,

I believe, slightly better battery life,

perhaps slightly improved video.

Look, you probably,

if you can afford to stump up for the second generation,

you are going to get a better product.

But if you find and feel like the budget

for the original meta Ray bands,

generation one, then get those.

Do not buy the Ray band stores,

the original original ones,

because they're probably not going to do

all the features of a modern pair.

Right.

Okay.

I think you'll love them.

Right.

So you suggest that I go for the Ray bands

rather than a GoPro.

I do.

I really do.

You've got a beautiful smartphone

that'll take the most amazing videos and photos

when you need them

if you don't feel like the Ray bands are up to it.

And how do you go about, say,

transferring those images

or whatever to, say, an iMac?

Absolutely.

A MacBook.

Look, I haven't done it to a PC,

but you do it to your phone.

There's a meta AI app on your phone.

You open the app.

It instantly pairs with your glasses

and downloads everything into your photo library.

If your photo library is synced,

they'll appear on your Mac.

But otherwise, you can just email them

or airdrop them across.

Right.

Okay.

Sounds simple enough.

Yeah.

All right.

So good luck and happy travels.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

And thanks for doing this with me this morning.

It's been great.

No worries at all.

Thanks for getting in touch.

Talk soon.

Cheers to you.

Cheers.

What a great,

what a great comparison.

Even just the thought of GoPro versus Ray bands.

But I think in every solution,

as I said,

unless you're snowboarding and skiing

and cycling or whatever it might be,

yeah, I think the Ray bands

are going to win that argument every time.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Don't get me wrong.

Break-ins and aggravated burglaries concern us all.

But what if you could prevent these crimes before they happen?

SWAN has been a trusted name in security

for over 35 years,

and their max range of 4K long range wireless cameras

can help keep any Australian home safe.

Unlike regular wireless cameras,

these new Wi-Fi, these use new Wi-Fi technology

with a stronger signal

that can transmit through obstacles like walls,

ceilings and trees.

And they can transmit further

with a long distance range of up to 600 meters.

You can see everything in 4K day and night

and prevent crime with AI, people

and vehicle detection that triggers sirens,

lights, mobile alerts and more.

Visit your SWAN reseller or SWAN.com.

That's SWAN.com, the max range of 4K.

It's the strongest wireless

for maximum home security from SWAN.

Well, I've been arguing in the comments again.

That's what I love doing.

I made a TikTok the other day

because I've started this series called

TrevExplains.

And just for simple things,

like how to port your mobile number,

how to change telcos.

And geez, it got some arguments

happening in the comments.

And you know, I love arguing in the comments,

so I've engaged pretty heavily.

But it got me thinking about the mobile networks

and where we're at this year

and one company that's had a bit of a change

in itself, but probably not

to the average user is Boost Mobile

and a newer CEO.

But under the desk,

the feed's been under the desk

for a little while now as Bobby Geldens

who joins me on the line.

Good day, Bobby.

Hey, Trev.

Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Mate, I don't think we've spoken on this show.

So congratulations first and foremost

on the new gig.

You kind of came through the Telstra ecosystem.

And then once they took ownership of Boost,

they tapped you on the shoulder

and said, this is your baby now.

Yeah, that's it.

Telstra acquired Boost about a year ago now.

And it was an exciting opportunity for me,

as you mentioned.

I did a couple of roles at Telstra

in sponsorship space in the media space,

a bit of corporate acquisition stuff

and devices that had to be rolling at Telstra.

And then this opportunity came up

and being part of a brand like Boost Mobile,

that's a great challenge

to the telco market.

It's so much fun to be involved with.

I was super excited about it.

It's been a great year.

It's had heaps of fun.

You take the footsteps,

not in the CEO sense,

Jason was great,

but Peter Adderton was a very vocal co-founder

of Boost Mobile

and still is vocal in his life

because he's running a business in America

and he's very opinion about supercars.

But bottom line,

it's a different approach for a business

to go from having such a vocal,

kind of outlandish founder

as the mouthpiece of the business

to being under the corporate umbrella of Telstra.

Does that change the business

or has that changed the business

thus far?

Well, yeah, I mean,

Boost is 25 years old this year, Trev.

We celebrated our 25-year anniversary

and Peter and Jason, I think,

did a great job in building the brand

and really challenging the market

and building plans that really

offered value to customers.

And yeah, it is a change.

A change in ownership is always a change,

but one of the things that,

when I came in and Telstra took over was,

you know, we bought the business

because it's a great brand,

a great customer base and it's growing.

And that's something we didn't want to change.

The brand, you know,

really resonates with younger audiences.

It has, you know,

it's a big supporter of action sports

and motor sports in the country

and offers great value.

And that's not something we wanted to change.

We wanted to stay the true to the brand identity.

So it is about growing

and some things that change

will try and appeal to broader audiences

that maybe haven't heard of Boost before

or haven't considered it.

But the brand and what we stand for

and the value product offering that

provide to customers,

there's absolutely no intention to change that.

That's really important to us.

The arguments that I've been having

in the comments on TikTok,

which is a joy of my life,

is around telco selection.

And I was making the point in my video

that I think generally,

and I've said this to telcos for over a decade now,

I think generally people don't realise,

A, how easy it is to switch

and B, that you can keep your number

and C, that there is only three networks

in Australia,

Telstra, Opposite and TPG Vodafone.

And you can have value

and you can have choice even within one network.

So the argument, for example,

regular one is,

nah, nah, I got to live in the bush,

got to be with Telstra.

And I go, yeah, I know.

So you've got options.

And I say, you've got Woolworth,

you've got Al, you've got Boost.

And they go, nah, nah, it's not the same.

But it is with Boost, isn't it?

And that's the fundamental thing that people,

especially in the bush,

need to know about Boost.

Yeah, that is really important.

And that's one of the key parts of our proposition.

We are on the full Telstra retail network.

So you get the coverage,

the same coverage as you would

if you're a Telstra customer, you get on Boost.

And that's really important

because you're right, it's an important choice.

A lot of customers in regional areas

who travel a lot might want and need

that coverage and reliability

of the full Telstra network.

But maybe they want to be more valuable

and need a little more value in their plan.

And so Boost is a great option for them

and yeah, that's something that we'll get.

It's a crazy saving though.

And I think a lot of people who understand,

because you don't remember your audience

and I think you know this,

whether a Supercars fan or something else.

A lot of them don't know that Telstra owns it now

and nor should they, frankly.

Who owns a business doesn't matter.

But it's kind of weird to me

that Telstra owns a business

that's undercutting its own business.

But I think the example is Jetstar and Qantas, is it not?

Yeah, and that's right.

I mean, we are owned by Telstra,

but we are a separate operating entity.

We have our own team, do our own marketing,

do our own retail sales.

And it's important for Telstra

and important for us to provide that choice for customers.

I mean, we do have a bit more value in our plans.

And we don't offer a retail store network

around the country.

And we don't offer brand new iPhones

on contracts to sell.

But for those customers who want a lot more value,

they need some more data and they need the network.

We're a really great option for them.

It's important to provide a choice for those customers.

And you mentioned, Trevor,

customers being nervous around switching.

That's something we see as well.

50% of Australians haven't thought about

or considered switching their telco in three, four, five years.

It's something that people are really nervous about.

And they tell us,

I'm nervous about losing my number.

I'm nervous about having to call up and deal

with my existing telco provider.

And as you know, it actually is really easy.

It's really easy process to switch

and point your number across

and consider taking up a service from someone like Bruce Mobile.

Is this why I'm not in marketing?

Because I just don't understand

why no one's telling that message on billboards.

You know, there's no telco doing it.

You know, everyone is looking at a brand.

And look, I understand there's a brand to build

and I understand, especially in the boost case,

probably more than any other telco brand,

you literally have a brand persona,

which is, you know, this youthful,

you know, what does it now work your ass off?

You know, there's a real clear, you know, a personality to it.

So I guess putting up a boost logo and going,

you know, you can keep your number

or it's easy to switch is a bit boring

and doesn't really entice people.

But it's still a story that needs to be told.

Yeah, it is.

I agree.

I think, I think there is,

there is more space for us to tell that story.

We certainly do try and message that to market.

And I think people do see it in MSU.

You go on website for a lot of providers,

you can see, hey, it's easy to switch, put your number.

Adjust.

I think there's some trepidation on nervousness

from customers.

Oh, what happens?

Am I going to lose my connectivity when I make that port?

Am I going to have to call up someone?

Am I going to have a loss of service?

And I think it's that nervousness,

not just the marketing message that we need to,

as an industry, do a better job in overcoming.

And so we're certainly trying to do that.

And the experience as you've experienced,

it's really seamless.

I mean, you go online, when you sign up,

she was to get a new physical SIM or an e-SIM

from someone like Boost Mobile.

When you go through that activation sign up,

you have the choice to get a new number

or use your existing number

and port it over if you're resisting provider.

You don't need to call them.

If you're with the Vodafone or Optus,

you don't need to call them and engage with them.

It takes a matter of hours, generally for the most part,

for your number to come across.

And you don't lose your service

when you click that button.

It stays on until your new SIM is ready in provision.

So you have no downtime in your connectivity.

So it is easy and seamless for the customers to do.

Where does the new Boost stand on things

that were often discussed under the old team,

which were home, broadband.

There was a push to become a bigger telco than just mobile.

Is that still on the radar

or is it more just about focusing on core?

I think right now we're focused on the core.

I mean, we're focused on growing our mobile business

right now and expanding our customer base.

There's more for us to do with the investments in technology,

particularly on digital and with e-SIM.

We're focused on making sure that experience

is as seamless as possible and growing our base.

I think in the future,

there might be opportunities to expand,

but right now we're focused on our core mobile business.

I'm going to pitch you something.

I pitched to a handset provider

probably a year and a half ago

and they were on board, but it's a telco thing, right?

And because you've got a direct link

into the beating heart of Australia's

biggest network and biggest telco.

And I think, and I'll tell you right now,

I think my pitch works for Boost better than anyone.

It's the weekend phone.

Boost Mobile is, you know,

you're in a suit by day, Monday to Friday,

and you're on a surfboard Saturday, Sunday.

You know, you can see that person on a billboard, right?

That's your Boost Mobile customer in some ways.

It's also the, you know, you might be

you need during the week and, you know,

mountain biking on the weekend for a youth audience.

And there was this great thing

over the years of simple phones,

dumb phones if you want to call them that.

The idea of them is brilliant.

It's like switch off from work, switch off from your week

and just put your SIM card in this phone

and you've got this weekend phone.

But the idea of taking a SIM card out,

putting it in, stupid, right?

But now we've got these amazing eSIMs.

Why can't we?

And this is definitely physically possible in the world,

but I think it requires a large investment,

I'm sure, from the telcos.

And I'm not asking for comment.

I'm just throwing you an idea.

The Telstra network allows me to have an eSIM

on Apple Watch.

By the way, do you have Apple Watch yet?

eSIM? You don't, do you?

We don't have eSIM on Apple Watch,

but it's a good question, Trevor,

on eSIM and can I have, you know,

the dumb phone where I can switch off a little bit

and have a different...

With eSIM you can have a couple of different numbers as well

on that same device

and your options to sort of switch off.

The Apple Watch is a great example.

I can have, if I've got an Apple Watch

and I'm paying Telstra five bucks a month

for my mobile phone.

On the weekend I could put my phone in a drawer

turned off and I can still receive phone calls

on my wristwatch.

The fact that that exists, but I can't put it

in a, you know, little Nokia phone

or just a second phone

and still receive phone calls on an eSIM

is just insane to me because

it's this beautiful switch off.

It's a really great work-life balance tactic.

I think there's great benefit in that

concept, both in marketing

but also in actual, you know,

I guess, feelings for people

so that they're not feeling so tied to their mobile phones,

especially in a world where we're having

social media bands and all this kind of stuff.

So I feel like there's still great advances

that could be made in Telstra

or network technology in Australia.

And I feel like a brand like Boost

could lead that, obviously.

Yeah, I think that concept

of digital detox is certainly one

that's gaining momentum.

I think for younger people

we target as well

with our offering and we appeal to

that idea that you can switch off

that you can

get away from your phone

and focus on friends and family.

One of the interesting use cases

I heard about was

the festival phone for young people.

So when I go to a festival,

I actually don't want to be on apps

communicating, getting calls

but I can still take photos.

I still need to be able to make a call

but I don't want to be out there

and be distracted

by everything else on my phone.

So definitely the use case for it.

I think for us, where we are

on devices is we offer an awesome

refurbished device program

which is great for the type of customer

that Boost serves.

A refurbished device, as you know,

is something that is a pre-owned phone

and it's a device that

someone else has had but it comes through

a warehouse facility in Sydney

that our partners should run.

And what they do is they basically

take that phone in, that's coming

via a trading program or something like that

and they refurbish it. So they polish it up,

they take it through a 72-point

safety check

and make sure everything is working properly,

take it through police, loss-installed databases

and then provide it to us

where we sell it to customers.

The benefit of that is we can sell devices

at a much, much cheaper price point.

So you know, rather than have your

$1,000 brand new iPhones in Samsung's,

great option for a parent

with a teenage R,

or for someone who wants that new phone

but doesn't have the budget or doesn't really want

that brand new one, a refurbished device

is a great option to have that extra phone as well.

Couple of quick things before I let you go.

12-month versus 28-day,

I can't remember ever recommending

someone on a pre-paid 28-day plan

other than, yeah, test the network out

but then sign up on 12-months because it's the most

unbelievable value you can ever get.

For example, you know, the deal

that you've got running through to mid-December

is, you know, $20.83 per month

if you're paying in advance, $250

and you get 290 gigabytes of data.

That's crazy deal,

crazy money.

Are you able to give me a sense of

how popular 12-month is

versus 28-days in your business

in terms of renewals?

That same, our 12-month $300 pre-paid

same, which you're right, it's on sale now

for $250, so that's nearly

just over $20 a month

with heaps of data to be

on the full-toucher network. It's an awesome deal.

That is our most popular skew

you know,

so that's a really

critical plan for us and customers

love it because they have that certainty

for a whole year. They get heaps of data

and it's a great value price point, so it

is the most popular bit. There's also some

customers who like the control and flexibility

of the month-to-month plan

for longer 28 days. So that might suit them.

I'm going to make the point too, and this is a good one

for people to notice when you see deals.

So this deal

ends on 22nd of December,

so it'll be about a week after this podcast

goes to air, but the deal

ends, but you can activate it

up until March.

And so if you're a

boost customer and you're

already on a 12-month and that ends in February,

you could buy it now and activate

it then, can't you?

Sure can, yep, you buy it

now and wait until your current plan

runs out or when you're ready to switch over

and then you can do it for the end of March. That's right.

Now the last thing is you mentioned

your target audience and the places

you campaigned through sports

and things. You mentioned motorsports.

I mean, Boost, Mobile, Volco 600,

obviously Peter has been passionate

about V8 Supercar teams in the past.

Are you confident

you'll be sticking with and around

supercars? Any plans to grow that

relationship?

Growing motorsports and action sports

is part of the DNA

of the Boost Mobile brand.

And motorsport particularly, we have

great partnerships with supercars,

with dirt bike riding and supercross

and obviously with surfing

and skating as well across different

sports. We actually have an ambassador program

where we support a bunch of up-and-coming

action sports and motorsports

drivers and the Boost Mobile

Volco 500, as you mentioned,

is a big part of what we do.

In that event every year

I think it's the iconic party event

on the sporting calendar.

That's certainly our intention to remain

in the sport. It's important to Boost

and you'll see us in and around

Australian motorsport

for years to come. Well done.

It's been a cracking year.

You've proven yourself year one

but I'm pretty sure the powers

will want to see growth

in you too, mate. That's always the way.

You've got to do better. You've got to get bigger.

That's all you want, more growth

and more people choosing the Boost Mobile brand.

Good on you, mate. Great to chat.

Merry Christmas and we'll talk in the new year.

Thanks, Trev. Great to chat.

You're listening to the EFTM podcast.

You can text Trev now

thanks to Vodafone on

0477 657 657.

Give us a call.

Send us a text. Send us a WhatsApp.

Whatever it might be. We'll get you on the show.

0477 657 657. Cade's on the line.

Hey, Cade. How are you?

Really good. What can I do for you?

I have renovated my house

for

my in-laws to have a room downstairs.

And while I was doing it,

I cabled everything for internet

and some cameras.

Mother-in-law that has dementia.

So we've got a room downstairs

that they can come and go as they please

to reduce the load

on the father-in-law.

So I now have 25 cable

cables hanging out

in the data rack

which I need to

switch with POE

and cameras are debatable at the moment

in terms of they're not with us

full-time and we're back on the bush.

So I kind of wired it up

with if they do

move in full-time, I might need cameras

if she heads in a direction

and we get to that point, we know where to head.

Do you not think

the situation there

do you not think cameras

are a generally

interesting idea or a good idea for just general home

security?

Yeah, definitely. I have

actually some really cheap

ones off Amazon

that I used while I was renovating

and they're still up and around

the place but we don't rely

on them for security

as such.

I shouldn't probably admit this

but we very rarely lock the house as well.

I'm not going to lie, I'm the same.

Yeah, there's always

people around. We're fortunate we're back on to the bush.

We've got a really

nice little community there but there's always

someone out the back and around.

A lot of cameras at my place should be mad to come near

to be honest.

So yeah, just wondering

I do some

I work on a building so I'm a builder

and they use a particular

brand because they do the whole

lot and it all integrates together but

rather expensive.

I'm still using an Orbi that you suggested

I think it's the

RGB20 or whatever it is

model that's fine

but just looking at upgrading at some point.

And did you say

the cables are just hanging out of the wall so you need

to switch for them as well?

So I've got a data rack

they're all terminated in the rack.

So they are terminated.

Yeah, have an old school

switch in there, 24 port switch in there

that's currently running everything but obviously

nothing's PoE yet.

So

if we went to cameras, I'd be looking at PoE cameras

and then the wireless access points

obviously will use PoE.

So just kind of wondering if I look

at a brand that does cameras switches

wireless access points so it's all under

one umbrella or mix and

match and no dramas.

I don't think you'll have a major problem mixing and matching.

I think you can look at them separately though.

So for example,

the way you've terminated the cameras now

is all you need for

a network video system.

So there's really only one left on the market

and that's Swan. You need to end up making

them anymore but like I've got a Swan

eight camera

system here in the office

which is stupidly excessive for

100 square metres of office space.

And so basically there's no

switch involved there. They're just plugged

in from the termination point.

They're just plugged into the

Swan box because it provides the PoE.

It provides

everything the camera needs. You just

plug the ethernet cord into the back of the

Swan box to the camera and it's working. So in your case

you put a little jumper from

the camera

to the patch point where the camera

goes and then from the patch point back

to the network video box.

So I would say

Swan's your best bet for cameras

and then the good thing is

you could use

an Orbi system again.

I don't know

and I'll be proven wrong. I'm sure you

Bikwiti or someone high end like

that have a PoE mesh

router.

Is that who you've heard of?

Yeah, that's who they use at work.

By the time you get the switch

and the recorder and the cameras and the doorbell

and the wireless access points

they're not mucking around.

Let's say

we'll put it this way.

I've got four

network, not 24, four in my office

downstairs which is where our NBN comes

in and one of those ports goes all the way

upstairs into the linen closet at the top

and that's where I've put a Netgear Orbi

but there's also a power point there.

So the Orbi needs

power, proper power

but then it can be plugged

in for backhaul

into the Ethernet.

And that's what you want to set up.

So the power of a modern

Orbi system

it's exactly the same as what you've got now

power point and a satellite.

But instead of them communicating

via their own single

wireless network to each other

which is great

you've given them the ability to

communicate back to the modem

or the router

via the Ethernet

that's all you do. Now, is it as easy to set up?

No, it requires

a couple of different tweaks but it's totally

doable. You won't have any issues

finding support for that online. So bottom

line what I'm saying is you can totally go

with a Netgear Orbi system that has

wired backhaul and you can totally

go with a SWAN

NVR camera system

which uses your Ethernet cables

to run the camera feed.

There's no reason you need to invest in a whole

system. There's obvious advantages to

the Ubiquiti system because of it's one app

and one everything but

if I look at it this way and I go

your wireless is really touched

you normally only go to that

when there's an issue.

Whereas your cameras you go to

whenever you want to and it might be a

daily weekly thing. I don't know why they need

to be the same app.

Okay, perfect.

So have some fun mate. Thank you very much for your advice.

I will. It's good planning mate

to wire the house even though

it's a wireless world. It is still

slightly better system in the long run.

I've got them everywhere.

Yeah, well done.

Alright mate, well good luck with it.

Thank you very much for your time. See you at the live show.

Cheers buddy. I'll see you there. Can't wait.

Thanks. Bye.

See you buddy. Bye.

Kate is coming to TubeBlogs Talking Tech Live

which is next Wednesday night

in Sydney looking forward to that one.

So if you want to hear the shenanigans

of a live show well we'll see how it turns out.

We'll give it a much thought but it's going to be chaos.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Great to have you company.

We'd love to hear from you. 0447657657

Matt's on the line today Matt.

Hi Trevor, how are you going?

Yeah, really good. What can I do for you mate?

I've got an issue with my Telstra

Samsung Ultra 25.

It doesn't

it doesn't work with the

SpaceX

satellite technology that they advertise

it will work.

Where are you going to test that

for starters? Obviously an area with

no Telstra coverage.

That's correct, yeah. Out of my

minor workout in the

Hunter Valley

and there's other people there with the iPhone 17s

that

have it working

and I've seen it right beside me. Heaps

of sky vision as they

ask for and

they sort of go out in the pit you lose

4G and 5G

and all the Samsung's do is come up with

sometimes emergency

only call but most times just no service

whatsoever.

Now

it's a Galaxy 25.

What plan are you on with Telstra?

You want an upfront plan as they call them?

Upfront, the one that

is required to

get the satellite.

I've spoken to the abuzzman who then

told someone from Telstra

and she was great. She called

promptly and got me in touch

with a senior technician

who I've been in talks with

trying different things like resetting

this, resetting that. He's been

right through like my phone

asking the updates

I've got on it and

said, yeah, look it should be working

so the last I spoke to him

which was a few days ago he said

within five days another

team of techs that looked

at the location would be back

and have an answer for me within five

business days so that

they've got a couple more days to go on

that. Yeah, I've tried it.

He sent an email through

with step-by-step instructions on what to do

I mean it's pretty basic stuff but I've

done it multiple times turning the phone off

for 30 minutes whatever.

To be clear, people in the same area

with iPhones are having success.

Yeah, I've seen I've actually taken

a picture of his phone and within

a couple of seconds it pops up. Apparently

Telstra actually has a different

arrangement with SpaceX

as to the Samsung

but that's not something they advertise

and what that is I don't know but it's definitely

a

hang on, so on the iPhone

does it say Telstra SpaceX

or is it just the little satellite icon come up?

No, it'll scroll through

on the left hand side of the phone saying

Telstra SpaceX

and on the right hand side it just has

big bold letters sat in yellow

and a pretty old school looking

bar indicating how much signal you've got

and it's normally four or five bars.

Yeah right, okay so I was just checking

it wasn't the actual Apple satellite

emergency system that it was connecting to

and not the SpaceX one, that's all

because that's a big difference

obviously Apple has that

and do you know anyone else with Samsung phones

at the mine site? Have they seen the same thing?

Oh hey see it's probably

a 5059 site with those

two phones and yeah

no one with Samsung unfortunately has it working

so they're all sort of seeing

what happens with my case

and I've got

a couple options would be

to go back to the iPhone 17

which I don't want to do, I love

the Ultras

and yeah I just want them to fix it

because they're advertising that that's

what it does and I would have looked at

you doing the paid version

of it where you can have full mobile data

and calls and what not.

Mate that is going to be some

way off. Yeah

I'll tell you why though and I've worked it out

it's not actually to do with the capability

because it's possible that they

could enable certainly calls

and then data, very low rate

data but it's you know what it's going to be about

triple zero

because as soon as they say that

that phone calls

are possible everywhere they need to be sure

that triple zero is possible everywhere

they need to understand that triple zero

is going to work on satellite. Mate it's a can

of worms for them and if you imagine how much

pressure they're all under right now

from the media and the government around triple zero

they do not want that rubbish

on their agenda like

yeah they're just freaking out about it

so I think that's probably

why it's a

problematic issue for them right now

but anyway that's said

you've got a valid concern and

the reason I want to talk to you is just to validate

that it wasn't just you essentially

that we'd kind of gone through the basic obvious

tests and I think that

you have so let me

reach out to both Samsung and

Telstra and get a sense of it

I will check with

producer Rob to see whether or not we've got

an easy copy of your original note to me and if so

I can forward that on otherwise we'll be

in touch just to get you to document it but

I'll talk to Telstra and Samsung and see

if they've got any comment mate but fascinating one

because it obviously they've promoted

Samsung as being a platform that it works on

so they've obviously got some work to do

and though on the

the only thing I could find online

is that if it's not a Telstra bought

Samsung yes you can have some issues

there but there's definitely a lot

of issues and when you look at other sort of

media platforms to you know there's

people out walking the bush going great

phone it's not working in the

satellite so

yeah it's definitely not happening with

Samsung's unfortunately because like I

said I love the phone and I don't want to go

back because that's what I'm used to

now and I love the features of the

Altar 25 so hopefully

I also

tested it with my daughter's phone I bought

her the same phone at the same time

and once you finally allowed me

to take it for a weekend which

was really bad and

I could wait to give it back because I don't

like her kitty cat

you know icons and stuff

yeah it didn't work either obviously

so yeah

alright we'll leave it with me let's see what we can find out

no worries thanks Trevor

no worries at all mate we'll come back

to you thanks very much yeah it's a fascinating

one so it sounds like it's a problem for

our Samsung phones generally on this

satellite

SMS service that Telstra have launched and

clearly announced so let's see whether they

know about the problem and what's being

done to fix it

the EFTM podcast thanks to

swan home security to connect

detect and protect

thank you to swan for their support of the podcast this year

I appreciate it and it means

we can make the show free not that I could ever work out

a way of charging for it but hey

it does make it better to sit here and produce

the show so I appreciate their support to Alex

and the team at swan

big things coming in 2026 no

doubt let's go back to calls can I grant

no Trevor

what can I do for you buddy

I'm moving back into our house

I want to get better Wi-Fi

I'm a bit torn because you're

responsible neck year

we got Aussie broadband

and they've got the Aero

yes the Amazon Aero yep

yeah so I just want to

know are they compatible

comparable you know the neck gear

and that or should I go

for the neck gear well my

heart is saying please buy a neck gear but

my head says mate of course

there's a big reason

to go with what the internet provider

supplies and that is support

they're always going to provide you with just that little

bit better support when they know the product

they gave you so that's a definite reason

Aero

is excellent I've absolutely nothing

bad to say about them they're probably selling

you the latest ones which are you know Wi-Fi 6

maybe even Wi-Fi 7 I don't know what

they're offering but the big

differences are things like

the neck gear have parental

controls they have a security system built

in some of the neck gear products

have tri-band networks because it allows

them to have a unique backhaul for the

individual devices I can't

speak to that on the Amazons but it's

a thing to investigate if you wanted to do

some comparisons but at its basic

level my man they're a good

product we've reviewed them on EFTM

they're excellent the Amazon

make good products and I don't think

you'll be disappointed with them at all

right yeah yeah that's good yeah

because you know I just want it to the

three-story house but it's not a huge house

so we had that Wi-Fi

in the garage but you know

the top floor is not getting good Wi-Fi

so I just want to improve it because

so the NBN comes in on the bottom floor

yeah

you weren't able to run a cable up to

the top we got

the cable we ran the cable when we built

the house but it might be

Cat5 and everything now

does with Wi-Fi and so

we didn't use them

when did you how long ago did you run the cable

4 years ago

5 years ago

find out if it was Cat5 or Cat6

because

if it's Cat6 mate I would put

the router up on the top floor

I'd directly connect the NBN

box upstairs and because

weirdly Wi-Fi drops down

better than it goes up

so basically putting

Wi-Fi devices

upstairs is better than

putting them downstairs and hoping that it works upstairs

if you know what I mean but mate

you probably need a three-pack for a three-story

home just to put one on each level at the

very least

I think you'll be fine with that mate

yeah

alright no worries thank you mate my

pleasure enjoy happy Wi-Fi

thank you see ya

cheers good on you Grant thanks for getting in touch

yeah I mean look I'd love

you to always buy Netgear Orbi products

but I totally get that

there's plenty of others on the market and there's reasons

and I respect that

and so would Netgear

no problems at all but if you've got the time and money

and effort and we'd love you to support the people

that support this show and all the other shows that we're able to

produce

in the two blokes feed and wherever else

so thank you for at least thinking about it Grant

thank you very much for listening

thank you for downloading

look we'll do it all again next year folks

nothing changing here

I have no plans to change anything

other than just get more efficient

we've got weekly giveaways

happening still throughout the Christmas

and New Year period thanks to the EFTM magazine

you can get all those through the EFTM app

and

that just makes it fun

and the entry numbers are just huge

and they're growing every week which is awesome

so thank you to everyone for their feedback on the magazines

and for entering the competitions

it's just free stuff for you folks

that's the way I want it to be

so we'll do more of those throughout

2026 and of course

wherever you live

if there's a triple M station near you

you'll be able to hear me throughout 2026

we'll be doing weekly tech segments

I think it's a little recorded segment

that will appear in breakfast and afternoons

as well as a bunch of stations

I'll be talking to live every week

about the latest tech so lots happening on the triple M network

as well throughout 2026

so

look it's a big year bring it on

and of course we'll still be on the Today Show

and all those other things don't stress

Happy New Year folks

hope you have a great Christmas

and we'll talk to you again in a few weeks

on January 13th for the first episode of 2026

Thank you

Dodge Challenger

About this episode

Original notes