Australian Mobile phone providers: For use in AU & overseas.

[stm1sydney]

+1 for Vodafone. I recently moved from Optus and it is much better. Same or better coverage, better online My Account system (Optus's is a shambles), cheaper, and the $5/day int roaming. Telstra way too expensive and not a premium network anymore.

 

[serfty]

No good to the OP, but I'm hanging on to my Virgin Mobile as long as possible.

 

[drron]

Basically I am just starting in this smart phone era.Necessary when I am working and on call.But gradually getting into the data hungry uses.
reviewed the plans aqnd went with Belong-Telstra owned so uses their network-as I am often in more remote places including Tasmania the Telstra network beats the others.
beauty of belong-no lock in contracts,roll over of data and cheaper than the Telstra plans.
International calls to 36 countries for $5 a month-fortunately includes Colombia in case of lifemiles hassle.You can do this month by month.
No problems at all.

 

[takenbyaliens]

I have a Telstra premium business plan. I am o/s a lot so for me it works...10GB data a month o/s, 160GB data here in AUS, unlimited to anything here, unlimited to, from, between about half the countries in the World ( all that I need anyway ). New iPhone every November. It still works out cheaper over a year than before I went on to it 3-4 yrs ago. I was on 4GB data but they bought out a new plan with 10GB. I jumped up and down and got them to move me over at no cost...took 1.5 hrs on the phone escalating upwards but got it in the end!!

 

[Forg]

Depends where you're going I guess, but mobile phone shops are everywhere in most cities these days. Turns out the locals use them too!

You can also get them at the airport a lot of the time, sometimes even from vending machine.

Aye, I was just thinking back to a recent holiday in the UK which was punctuated with a 3-day work-related hop to Belgium.
Arrived at Gatwick with the jetlag & general PO’d-with-the-worldness I’ve always had after long travels, and I’d read that the SIMs available at Gatwick were really exxy. Picked up a car & drove off into the never-never, and the next day we had to take a trip to a (huge) Tesco in order to get a SIM. Really not a problem, we were there a month, and wanted to buy some other stuff anyway (I always forget to take my sunnies!).

However; said work trip to Ghent involved arriving at BRU at 7:30pm, renting a car (traffic didn’t exist - BE World Cup game was on ), arriving at AirBnB accomodation after 9, then finding a tram-ticket vending machine & some dinner ... nothing open at that time of night, at least there, seems to have affordable SIMs. The next 3 days were pretty long & involved getting to/from the office by tram, and it would’ve been a PITA to have to track-down a SIM.
So while I’m not saying it’s super difficult, in a situation like that I’d have swallowed a $5/day or even a $10/day fee to avoid hunting a SIM down. At least, for that short period.

 

[VPS]

But your UK sim should have worked in Belgium

 

[Forg]

Oh I used the UK SIM in Belgium; I was just comparing the amount of time you have for such things when you’re somewhere for a long time, as opposed to when it’s a short trip. Ie. if I’d only been going to Ghent for 3 days, from home, I’d have just swallowed the per-day roaming cost (although I wouldn’t ever go to Belgium for just 3 days from home! Imagine I was in HK for 3 days ...).

 

[ausfox]

I have tried to use Telstra and Travelsim recently in Japan with virtually no success.

Just returned from USA where I attempted to use Travelsim. Despite indicating connection, it worked only intermittently.

Back to the idea of local sims.

 

[opusman]

So 20 GBP from a vending machine is really really exxy but $5/day isn't ?

 

[harvyk]

So 20 GBP from a vending machine is really really exxy but $5/day isn't ?

I suppose it depends on how long you'll be in the country and what you get for your 20gbp.

For my travels, yes it is.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I have S8 through Vodafone on trips to the USA but won't use the $5.00 plan everyday, only if there is inadequate airport wi-fi so if not using it will turn off data and turn on flightmode. I bought an AT&T on a long layover in LAX at the Westchester store (courtesy of The Parking Spot Sepulveda shuttle bus ) sim on the USD40.00 per month autopay plan then switch it back to 0.25c per minute when leaving the US.

If you load USD100.00 in the one go every 12 months you can keep the phone number. I use my S5 as my travel phone with the AT&T sim.

Having a US phone number is essential IMHO in case you have a mishap in your rental car and need to give roadside assistance a contact number for when they get lost and need to call you to double check the address. Failing that you'd have to give them your Airbnb's phone number to relay the message to you via the app.

 

[OATEK]

I have tried Telstra, Optus and Vodafone at home and all were pretty much the same - 1 bar at best. If a call comes through you never pick up the phone, just answer and put on speaker. Picking it up usually kills the call. That is why we maintain a landline.

But for around town, interstate and overseas Vodafone has been the winner. Never had a problem, whether in Sydney or St Petersburg. Mind you the latter is not covered by the $5 a day roaming, but my usage cost when I needed to use it there was $1.10. I used the old phone telstra on arrival in say Paris/London and they would give you a $30 package for 3 days. It was a PITA, and Voda is so much better.

 

[Ewing]

I switched to Vodafone last year after years on Telstra.

It was amazing at first (I'd get 300Mbps on speedtest) but over time it just got slower and slower to the point where I was actively seeking out public wifi - something I hadn't done in years.

So I paid out my contract and ported back to Telstra in May. It just works and I've even gone from being forced to enjoy my commute in disconnected solitude to being able to watch Netflix again ...

 

[Points Pirate]

If Telstra coverage is a key factor for you (as it is for me), there are a number of providers that utilise the Telstra network, but with much (much!) more reasonable pricing plans. These include Telechoice (I'm on this) and Think Mobile (some of their plans only - which I have been on in the past). I've had no issues with either of these.

 

[Pleb Status]

You cannot call yourself a real traveller unless you have a dual SIM phone. I have saved hundreds over the years using a local SIM for cheap high speed 4G local data whilst having full access to my Australian SIM at the same time. I have had a dual SIM Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Note 5 and S8+, all purchased outright whilst in Hong Kong or Singapore.

I have been with Telstra for more than twelve years but this will come to an end next week. Samsung are launching the Galaxy Note 9 in Australia as a dual SIM phone, the first dual SIM phone from Samsung in Australia. I am getting a 512Gb Note 9 on a 24 month Contract with Optus for $109/month, which includes unlimited calls/SMS and 200Gb of data in Australia and unlimited calls/SMS and 6Gb of data overseas per month.

http://smb.optus.com.au/opfiles/Shop/All/cis/Cis Documents/CIS_105_My_Plan_Plus_145_Promo_Plan.pdf?_ga=2.260247245.132182220.1534244243-1856633548.1533951516

This deal is only available to Perth, Tasmania and regional customers however.

If I am somewhere overseas for a few weeks, a local SIM will still be a better deal. However, if I am just passing through for a few days, the Optus deal will save a lot of coin and hassle...

 

[coriander]

+1 for dual sim phones (we have both S8 and N8). Also I see that the Note 9 will have the ability for both sims to be active 4G rather than previous models 4G for one sim and 3G for the other - although when OS, I always switched the AU sim to 3G and turned data off and use a local sim for 4G date and calls.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

You cannot call yourself a real traveller unless you have a dual SIM phone.

I reckon you probably can.

 

[Scott K]

I'm using Vodafone. The $5 roaming has been great - although keep an eye on a couple of caveats. The location you are going to may not be supported, and there's a limited amount of days you can use it.
However, back home in AU the reception is a bit of a hit and miss affair. My inner northern suburb (south of Bell street) has shaky but consistent reception. I work at two hospitals in Melbourne, and at the one closest to the CBD I get the poorest reception in my 6th floor office. Admittedly, so do all the Telstra phones provided to staff.

 

[N860CR]

Is Voda still the best option for irregular international roaming? I was thinking about getting a new phone but my current $40 plan with access to $5 intl roaming seems to just be the easiest option.

Most travel is in South Africa which doesn’t fall into Optus “zone 1” which is probably a problem

 

[suze2000]

I'm with Voda. Been very happy with their coverage for the price, and I can use my phone in the same way I do here when I travel overseas (to MOST countries - always worth checking). So when we are in some out of the way place in Australia and the coverage is less that stellar, Hubby's phone always works, when we are away, mine does. It's great.