Family of 3

My sister's visiting over Xmas and has found some Virgin UK plan which will give them an Australian SIM. They (her and husband) both have unlocked phones so I reckon it'll be easier to buy a pre-paid Sim here.

They'll be in Perth and travelling down as far as Albany.

Any ideas on what network will give the best coverage?

(I did google, but didn't find anything terribly useful).

Amazulu

Telstra NextG - the best coverage available outside of urban areas

Red_V_Roger

Telstra Next G...no question.

Vodafone is getting better - at least in some parts of the bush in the east though.

Family of 3

Wow, that was quick. Thanks guys.

elice_in_oz

They should be able to buy a SIM card for $1 from most providers and then choose how much credit to get. My sister got a Vodafone SIM last Christmas and then bought some prepaid talk and text time. It might work out cheaper than going through their UK provider... Maybe...
I do concur with Telstra for rural areas too.

HelenTD

I'm with Virgin here, usually works OK, bit of trouble in the Joondalup area. At Easter we went down to Denmark, about 50 km west of Albany. The service dropped out at Mt Barker (these 3 places form a triangle, Mt Barker at top). Didn't work on the way to Denmark, but you have to drive through forest, so just assumed poor coverage on that road. Still didn't work after a couple of days, we even drove to top of hill where the tower is. Checked with a friend and she told us that her other visitors and loads of Perthites in the area for the holiday had big problems with their Optus mobiles, with Optus denying that there was a problem with the service, and people were told to buy a new SIM card.

Drove over to Albany one day, service returned about 10 km west of Albany, dropped off again when we left. Our Denmark friend told us later that Optus had finally acknowledged that their network was down and apologised to local customers (but not us Perthites).

Some of these roads can be surprisingly light in traffic, with some long distances between petrol stations where you might find a payphone or someone who will let you make a call. I hate to say it, but it would probably be safer to use Helstra (might have to re-open that thread about what makes you go Grrrr ...).

northernbird

I don't normally sing the praises of Telstra but we have been Exmouth to Augusta and had coverage everywhere. For mobile until Telstra give up their monopoly they are the only provider worth going with.

Family of 3

Thanks everyone. We're planning a trip down that way ourselves in a couple of weeks so will buy a Telstra SIM for us to test out for them (and also for when our Optus coverage dies!).

koalakim

Yep, has to be Telstra!

We travelled all round SW WA (as far as Esperance) and then up to Monkey Mia and we had Vodaphone at the time. It only worked in the towns and then only about 2/3 ks outside some. In Pemberton we were 4 kms from town and it cut out, in Margaret River again couple of k's outside the town and no reception. Nothing at all in Denham and Monkey Mia, I think the last place it worked was Geraldton! In Denham we saw people walking around using mobiles and can only guess it was Telstra.

Even where we live now one of our neighbours has to go into his front garden to use his Vodaphone mobile!