UK-OZ mobile comparisons
Sep 24th 2004, 4:51 am
#1
Keeping it fairly real
Thread Starter
Joined: Jun 2004
Location: In the sun
Posts: 32,863
UK-OZ mobile comparisons
Hi All
Just a short one to let you know of my mobile phone experience.
I bought a phone in the uk, all be it a cheap one, and it needs chipped in OZ at about $85. I thought with it being a vodaphone it would work on the vodaphone network in Oz, wrong I was.
It actually works out cheaper buying a new phone in Oz as they are for peanuts. I bought a tiny little sony erricson for $69 dollars with $30 credit. It's just for talk and text but if you want good nokias with all the extras they start at about $100. Also with vodaphone if you buy $79 of credit you actually get $500 talk credit free but has to be used within a month.
So unless you have an expensive phone I would say buy in Oz. Also I was using my old phone to use up the credit from uk and it was costing me $1.50 a shot to text, on the Oz network it's 25c to send to uk
Walla
Just a short one to let you know of my mobile phone experience.
I bought a phone in the uk, all be it a cheap one, and it needs chipped in OZ at about $85. I thought with it being a vodaphone it would work on the vodaphone network in Oz, wrong I was.
It actually works out cheaper buying a new phone in Oz as they are for peanuts. I bought a tiny little sony erricson for $69 dollars with $30 credit. It's just for talk and text but if you want good nokias with all the extras they start at about $100. Also with vodaphone if you buy $79 of credit you actually get $500 talk credit free but has to be used within a month.
So unless you have an expensive phone I would say buy in Oz. Also I was using my old phone to use up the credit from uk and it was costing me $1.50 a shot to text, on the Oz network it's 25c to send to uk
Walla
Sep 24th 2004, 5:05 am
#2
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 7,834
Re: UK-OZ mobile comparisons
Originally Posted by walla1
Hi All
Just a short one to let you know of my mobile phone experience.
I bought a phone in the uk, all be it a cheap one, and it needs chipped in OZ at about $85. I thought with it being a vodaphone it would work on the vodaphone network in Oz, wrong I was.
It actually works out cheaper buying a new phone in Oz as they are for peanuts. I bought a tiny little sony erricson for $69 dollars with $30 credit. It's just for talk and text but if you want good nokias with all the extras they start at about $100. Also with vodaphone if you buy $79 of credit you actually get $500 talk credit free but has to be used within a month.
So unless you have an expensive phone I would say buy in Oz. Also I was using my old phone to use up the credit from uk and it was costing me $1.50 a shot to text, on the Oz network it's 25c to send to uk
Walla
Just a short one to let you know of my mobile phone experience.
I bought a phone in the uk, all be it a cheap one, and it needs chipped in OZ at about $85. I thought with it being a vodaphone it would work on the vodaphone network in Oz, wrong I was.
It actually works out cheaper buying a new phone in Oz as they are for peanuts. I bought a tiny little sony erricson for $69 dollars with $30 credit. It's just for talk and text but if you want good nokias with all the extras they start at about $100. Also with vodaphone if you buy $79 of credit you actually get $500 talk credit free but has to be used within a month.
So unless you have an expensive phone I would say buy in Oz. Also I was using my old phone to use up the credit from uk and it was costing me $1.50 a shot to text, on the Oz network it's 25c to send to uk
Walla
I brought my vodafone mobile with me, and once I got to Oz I emailed Vodafone and they sent me an unlocking code cost me £18.00 wgich they took from my fone credit, now I can use my vodafone mobile on any network
.....although have stuck with vodafone for the time being as I just use text messaging and with a $30 top up u get 300 free texts to anywhere in the world....how cool 
Sep 24th 2004, 7:23 am
#3
Down Under and Lovin It
Joined: May 2004
Location: Ellenbrook, Perth, WA
Posts: 692
Re: UK-OZ mobile comparisons
If you do a net search there are loads of companies that will provide unlock codes fror all most any phone for £2.95/£3.95
The phones do not need to be "chipped" just enter code and job done.
Sounds like a good racket to be in , in Australia!!
Paul J
The phones do not need to be "chipped" just enter code and job done.
Sounds like a good racket to be in , in Australia!!
Paul J
Sep 24th 2004, 8:29 am
#4
Tupperware's #1 fan
Joined: May 2004
Location: Crawley West Sussex
Posts: 2,315
Re: UK-OZ mobile comparisons
Originally Posted by Jacko1
If you do a net search there are loads of companies that will provide unlock codes fror all most any phone for £2.95/£3.95
The phones do not need to be "chipped" just enter code and job done.
Sounds like a good racket to be in , in Australia!!
Paul J
The phones do not need to be "chipped" just enter code and job done.
Sounds like a good racket to be in , in Australia!!
Paul J
Yep I'l second that, You can also get your mobile unlocked in most UK markets for a £10, I have done this with a few phones and all have been fine in Auastralia, this means all you have to do in Australia is buy a sim card most are around $30 and include talk time.
I'd recommend getting your phones unlocked in the Uk as I have also found the AUstralian companies charge a fortune to unlock and you can't find some dodgy bloke in the market to do it cheaply.
If you are goin to be living out of a big town you will need CDMA and you will have to buy a phone in Australia for that as they dont take a sim card
Cheers
Kala
Sep 24th 2004, 8:42 am
#5
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: UK-OZ mobile comparisons
Originally Posted by walla1
Hi All
Just a short one to let you know of my mobile phone experience.
I bought a phone in the uk, all be it a cheap one, and it needs chipped in OZ at about $85. I thought with it being a vodaphone it would work on the vodaphone network in Oz, wrong I was.
It actually works out cheaper buying a new phone in Oz as they are for peanuts. I bought a tiny little sony erricson for $69 dollars with $30 credit. It's just for talk and text but if you want good nokias with all the extras they start at about $100. Also with vodaphone if you buy $79 of credit you actually get $500 talk credit free but has to be used within a month.
So unless you have an expensive phone I would say buy in Oz. Also I was using my old phone to use up the credit from uk and it was costing me $1.50 a shot to text, on the Oz network it's 25c to send to uk
Walla
Just a short one to let you know of my mobile phone experience.
I bought a phone in the uk, all be it a cheap one, and it needs chipped in OZ at about $85. I thought with it being a vodaphone it would work on the vodaphone network in Oz, wrong I was.
It actually works out cheaper buying a new phone in Oz as they are for peanuts. I bought a tiny little sony erricson for $69 dollars with $30 credit. It's just for talk and text but if you want good nokias with all the extras they start at about $100. Also with vodaphone if you buy $79 of credit you actually get $500 talk credit free but has to be used within a month.
So unless you have an expensive phone I would say buy in Oz. Also I was using my old phone to use up the credit from uk and it was costing me $1.50 a shot to text, on the Oz network it's 25c to send to uk
Walla
When i was in Perth for xmas (getting the visa stamp prior to my emmigration in Nov) I took my orange network Nokia mobile with me. It wouldnt work as it needed unlocking. The only guy in perth able to do this was on holiday and would have charged $20-30. i went to a cyber cafe, surfed around and had it unlocked 10 mins later for £4.
Its a common problem and the mobile shops in Perth seemed to know little about how to solve it. I did go back and give them the URL so they could help out poor travellers in the future but i guess its better to sell some foreign sucker a new mobile
Sep 24th 2004, 9:55 am
#6
Keeping it fairly real
Thread Starter
Joined: Jun 2004
Location: In the sun
Posts: 32,863
Re: UK-OZ mobile comparisons
Originally Posted by Jacko1
If you do a net search there are loads of companies that will provide unlock codes fror all most any phone for £2.95/£3.95
The phones do not need to be "chipped" just enter code and job done.
Sounds like a good racket to be in , in Australia!!
Paul J
The phones do not need to be "chipped" just enter code and job done.
Sounds like a good racket to be in , in Australia!!
Paul J
However (if) by the time I paid to unlock phone and buy credit for my old phone I got a brand new one for about the same cost without the hassle of getting it chipped.
Walla
