I picked up the $106 plan with unlimited calls to many places in the world.
Is this still available? I find the Optus site unclear, but I see plans at $120 which includes 10 days of travel pack, but I haven't found $106 with unlimited calls (to I assume, Zone 1 countries?).
If I'm reading the Optus offers correctly, it appear they offer both prepaid and post paid roaming rates and for my selected country comparison of PNG (usually a more expensive country) prepaid at $1/min for send/receive calls and $0.50 for sending text or free to receive text plus $1/Mb data or on a plan you can roam at $1.50/min for send/receive calls (the other rates the same as prepaid) or buy a travel pack (plan only) offering unlimited talk and text plus 100Mb of data for $10/day up to 31 consecutive days (I assume that can be as many times a year as you like, provided it doesn't exceed the 31 consecutive day limit?).
Amaysim, which I currently use, also uses the Optus network but is $1/min for post-paid send/receive calls,$0.50 for sending text or free to receive text plus $0.50/Mb data, so cheaper than Optus, but no Travel Plan option.
Vodafone is unlimited talk and text for $5/day and it appears they also allow your full data allowance as per your plan, but is limited to a max of 90 days per calendar year. After that they charge $1/min for send/receive calls and $0.75 for sending text or free to receive text plus $1/Mb for data.
The Telstra version seems to be unlimited days possible, provided you pay your $10/day. The excess data is at $3/Mb, which seems awfully excessive. Furthermore, the Optus unused data rolls over whereas unused Telstra data expires at the end of each day however with Telstra, you get 200Mb of data which is double what Optus gives.
For me, I don't use roaming much, but as I work O/S for about 200 days a year, Vodafone is limited (but still possible as the roaming rates are similar to what I currently pay. Both Telstra and Optus are possible to give the 200 days on the travel pack, but $2000 a year (plus the plan rate) would buy 33 hours of talk time on a $1/min rate and the Amaysim plan I'm on costs $40/month for unlimited talk and text at home, plus 15G of data plus unlimited international calls to 10 select countries and 300min/month of calls to 22 select countries.
It seems controlling roaming (easy with Amaysim, not sure about the others) and paying the going rate seems the better option unless you're mainly after data or an avid talker. For those after data, the Voda plan seems best as it allows all your normal data usage you chose when selecting a plan.
I'd like to hear more about that Optus $106 plan with unlimited international calls, as that may be exactly what I need!
