Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

I know this question gets asked loads but the answer changes quite often.

When I come to Oz both me and my wife will bring our unlocked smart phones and would like to know if there are any good PAYG deals with data included. Here in the UK the deals seem to change daily with some good ones on offer so I am just wondering if the same is happening in Australia.

Re: Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

Don’t call it PAYG when you get here, they’ll look at you funny. It’s called “Pre-Paid”.

There are plenty of good deals and caps here, I get the Virgin one where I top up with $29 and it gives me $150, to used on calls (including international), sms, mms, data etc and its free for me to call or text other Virgin numbers as much as I want.

Most other companies have similar deals, but I find this is the best for me.
Here are the sites and you can have a look for one that will suit you. I'm not sure if the other companies include international calls and data on their pre-paid caps.

www.virginmobile.com.au
www.optus.com.au
www.vodafone.com.au
www.telstra.com.au
www.three.com.au

Re: Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

Do bear in mind however, that the telco's offer very different services. A perusal of PPrincesses' Vodafone thread will tell you that a lot of people can't even get a decent service with Vodafone, even if the price is competitive.

Three suffers from a similar problem in that it has limited coverage outside CBD areas and you can get forced to roam onto the Telstra network.

The best network without equal in Australia is Telstra and they know it. You pay more and get less. But the 3G internet is blindingly fast and if there is coverage to be had, you will get it.

Optus has a decentish network but many people complain as to the slow 3G data. Virgin and many others just use the Optus network under their own branding and resell different packages.

So - moral of the story - just because something looks good on paper you want to check that you get a decent service in the areas your going to before committing to anything and get a few prepaid SIMs to try. For example, Telstra you get full signal at my home. If your on another network your lucky to get a single bar.

Re: Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

I brought my unlocked smartphone over and got a $30 pre-paid starter pack from the Telstra store. That came with 170Mb of data and $170 of bonus credit - your calls and texts come out of this. Local calls are about $1 so this gives three hours' talktime for local calls - which is enough for me as I make most calls from work. With the $30 I was able to use $20 to buy an additional 700mb data so this is plenty for me for the month.

I got this from the Telstra store, including a SIM card, and I can confirm that their 3G network is noticeably faster than o2 back home. In fact, I'm able to make Skype calls back to the UK from my iPhone and the quality is clear.

You'll need to take some kind of photo ID for the SIM card as they need to register the SIM to the government, for some unknown reason.

Hope this helps.

Re: Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

Yeah that's the biggest thing to get your head around here, the monthly allowance in Aus is calculated in dollars (not really dollars - Telstra dollars for example) and each call made costs a certain amount of 'dollars. In the UK your call allowance is calculated in minutes.

Re: Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

I use the $19 "Your Cap" recharge, which is similar, but with lower inclusive calls. At the moment they give you 1GB of data with that, and provided you recharge again with the month validity you get to keep what you haven't used, up to 5GB total.

Be aware that Telstra use 850/2100Mhz frequencies, whereas Optus and most British carriers use 900/2100Mhz. Therefore your smartphone might not work with the Telstra NextG network that gives you the expanded coverage in the wilds. Best to check what your phone will do and select network appropriately.

Re: Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=707233

Amaysim do pre- or post- paid.

Re: Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

Since we are talking smartphone, the 5c per megabyte cost comes into it. If you only used say 50MB in a month, that would be OK ($2.50) However, if you were dependent on it and say used 1GB in that month, it would hurt ($50) - unless you remembered to add a data pack. In contrast, someone like Virgin would have that 1GB included in the price.

Re: Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

Yes. The $10 data pack gives you 1Gb/month - I pay for that even though I only use a fraction of it. Actually I'm wondering if I need data at all: I connect the phone to my router by wifi if I want to get an app and I find that getting emails on the phone is more a hindrance than help.

But if you are light phone user I don't think you can beat the way they have taken out all the confusing small print that make people spend far more than they intend.

Re: Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

give tpg a try http://www.tpg.com.au
they do contract free deals.

Re: Smart Phone PAYG Sim
 

Thanks:thumbup:

This is really helpful information, just one more question I intend to move to the Perth area will this have any effect on the availability of any of these networks.