Why are they so bloody expensive?

We have survived thus far on mobile broadband (Virgin - actually quite good) and GT mobile pay as you go (excellent but have to put up with not being one of the gang -ie smartphone less) and have decided to venture into the world of broadband and landlines. Though I'd found a reasonable deal with Club Telco but they want to charge me $299 for reactivating the line that is already there.

Don't get me starting on the mobile packages that offer hundreds of dollars of "included value" for signing your life away. And my friend just signed up with Vodaphone and has to stand outside the house to make calls. Standard price of calls 90c a minute. And I thought BT were bad.
Still, it's autumn and 32 degrees..........

Amaysim sim for $39 per month unlimited landline and mobile calls (including 13 and 1800 numbers).

http://www.amaysim.com.au/?cid=gsems...%7C18154260473

Why not just carry on with your prepay sim, and purchase the smart phone of your choice independantly - it certainly makes financial sense when you look at the minimum cost of the contract phones against the cost of buying a new smartphone - depending of course which smartphone you want.

GT mobile don't do data so no point getting a smart phone. Amayasim look good though.

This is where slaving away for the benefit of Hellstra for years comes into its own:
A HTC Desire on a staff plan is $60 upfront, and nothing more with a $10/month $39 worth of calls capped plan and 1Gb data pack.

This is the only advantage of working for them!

It is a good deal, we have Amaysim on one mobile for making all our Australian calls and a Skype landline number that gives us free landline calls to about 21 countries for I think $200 per annum. The kids all have a pre-paid Vodafone sim and for $30 per year they get unlimited Vodafone to Vodafone calls and text. They can call each other and most of their friends who are on the same deal for $30 a year.

Get a smartphone, bought straight out, a few hundred dollars.

Get a prepaid SIM provider that gives a decent amount of data, etc. and doesn't whine about tethering (eg Amaysim).

Port your existing number to the new provider.

Use the phone to provide a wifi hotspot, tethering your laptop etc. via it.

I think the mobile phone packages are pretty good. I'm on 49p/m with vodafone, never go over (including lots of international calls and tethering to my laptop when out and about) and a nice nexus s phone.