AndrewMarilyn

I've been with Vodafone in Uk for years.

Is it worth staying with them when we move to Sydney in January?

.............................?

ta

DownUnderPaddy

I have been with VF for the last few years here in Aus and am happy with the service and value.

You may find the 'Mobile Carriers' thread on the Whirlpool forums useful if you want to do some research on others opinions.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum...4&q=best+value

discobay

I don't believe that your loyalty will count here as they have different internal systems. You are best advised to shop around for a deal that suits you and take consideration of where you are likely to spend of your time w.r.t. coverage.

AndrewMarilyn

Vast majority of time will be in Sydney

discobay

If you're in the city and surrounding suburbs then most of the big providers like Telstra, 3, Vodafone, Optus and maybe even Virgin will be fine. Vodafone have their HQ in Sydney I believe.

freebo

Possibly not, they don't seem a major player here. On my first day in Sydney I went into a voda store to just buy a temp SIMM - told me I needed a bank reference to get one as I was a new migrant (staying in a hotel at the time) explained I just wanted a pre-paid, no contract SIMM but they insisted they needed a credit check, assistant was the most surly disinterested person I've ever come across in a shop!

Went next door to Optus - they fixed me up in no time, no reference - cash up front - although we're now with Telstra and Pennytell for our two phones.

discobay

That is unusual. Ofcourse you will always get some dumb a**s who knows the square root of f**k all working his/her way up to a job at McDs.

Don_Angel

I use Vodafone in Oz and don't have any problems. On the times that I have use the customer care number my issue has always delt with without too much pain. Customer service in the vodaphone shops/stalls/booths is not too hot, in fact it's pretty rubbish, you need to know what you want and do your research online before you go in. I find the txt+talk pack good value, lots of free stuff and only have to top up once every 2 months.

You do need ID to buy a pay as you go SIM here but not a credit check.

freebo

They said credit check to me - musn't have liked my nice UK passport (with nice fresh visa in it). Anyway I know all companies can have bad sales reps, my point was more that Voda are huge in the UK, here - not so much.

Don_Angel

Sounds like you got a relation to that post office woman who does not like serving poms :-))

Also I think 3 are owned by Vodaphone.

lou1003

Sorry, I didn't read all the replies, but just my two-penny...

If you're staying in a city like Sydney then you should be ok.
But I am with Vodafone in Oz and I find them useless! I live in Darwin and find their service coverage useless compared to my partner & friends. I've travelled all over Oz and compared to other networks, I find Vodaphone rubbish!

My boyf is with 3 who seem ok (and at one time they were doing a deal with cheap calls between Oz and UK, but I am talking a few years back, and I was in the UK). Telstra are supposedly the best coverage, but they are money grabbers from what I have heard, and generally charge higher rates.
Vodaphone are cheaper I reckon, but you get what you pay for, I don't even have service in my house!

Don_Angel

I have never been to Darwin but we have no coverage problems here (S E QLD) and we often stray far beyond the city limits. I have never not been able to make a call.

Rod-Helen-Poppy

vodafone and 3 share the same infrastructure apparently....

lou1003

Really?! Well my boyf is on 3 and he has service where I do not, so they do stuff different somewhere along the line!

I can think of a few places outside of the NT where I have had no service compared to others - e.g. where I lived in N.QLD in Home Hill (few hours south of Townsville), I had no service, town of 1770 I had none, and in the NT I have little outside of Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs! Exmouth in WA I had none.... etc

Just my experiences, and I can only think of a few places off the top of my head. I just remember my service was horrendous compared with other people I was with. If you are generally sticking to cities outside of NT, I have few complaints!

ABCDiamond

I've been with Vodafone for some time, with no problems.

The current market share divided by the three providers is about:

10 million 40% Telstra subscribers (46% in 2003)
8 million 32% Optus subscribers (34% in 2003)
7 million 28% Vodaphone (VHA) subscribers (18% in 2003)

Interestingly, both Telstra and Optus have dropped market share since 2003, while Vodafone has increased rapidly.