Hello anyone know what is best mobile phone company to go with?

e.g Vodafone, Telstra, Virgin etc.

Also does a dualband mobile work in Australia.

I have found a place on ebay that sells pay as you go sim cards. I like this idea so I can give out the number before I arrive. The stockist is in the UK so delivery is quick.

But not sure what company to go with. Which has best coverage? Especially if you are in Western Australia (rural)

Here is link if anyone else fancies a sim card before arriving. I have not bought from this person yet (So no guarantee from me, I am just mentioning a seller I have found on the net). But looks ok.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/experimentalists

Anyone know what company is best coverage for WA?

Gems

Ps, want a sim as got kids and so feel safer knowing I have phone for emergency upon arrival.

Gems

hi i bought a vodafone sim off ebay shop from australia so could give number out first....it's arrived and hopefully no problems with it....i chose vodafone as it has the best coverage where i'm going (cairns)if you put it in google asking the coverage it'll bring up which ones best!!good luck!

If you need coverage - use Telstra.

Otherwise the rest are all pretty much the same. Get a sim card on arrival. $10 on VF gives you a card and $10 of credit.
Bring either a 3G or GSM phone (GSM900 is preferred but 1800 works in places. Telstra uses UMTS850 and UMTS2100 but 850 has a lot larger coverage. For best coverage get a UMTS 850 handset or otherwise called NextG

We use Optus....
$30 gives you $120 credit
$50 gives you $300 credit.

All the credit carries over from month to month, you must recharge a minimum of $30 each month.
The credit will roll over to a max of $500 each month.

Neil.

Optus for us too Gems, the coverage is good and as other poster said you get great credit for $30.
I text back to UK loads and still never manage to use it all up before the month is up!

Thanks for your PM the other day, its on my list of things i have to do! We started moving into our house today and all our stuff from England arives on Thursday so i am in pnic mode!

Lisa.xx

Hi
I would have to agree with this poster if it's coverage you are after go with telstra on the next g network they will cover 98 o/o of the australian population and as he quite rightly says get a 850 handset you will get lots of features with this network

Billy

Hi there,

I have a Nokia N73 phone. Vodafone UK kindly unlocked it for free but would I be able to use this with Telstra. What is UMT? Obviously the N73 is 3G/GSM but I haven't heard of this UMTS thing before.

Cheers

J

Hi
Umts basicly means frequency and nokia do not support this you can use it on telstra's 3g or gsm network but not on NEXT G

Billy

Is NEXT G much faster and better?

Thanks for your help.

Regards

Julie

UMTS/Next G is 850Mhz and has larger coverage than UMTS/3G 2100Mhz. It also has faster downloads 3.5Mbps, but 3G is enabling the 3.5Mbps but its very limited to Melbourne and Sydney CBD's only.
Next G is a good coverage, high speed - but it is Telstra so may not be the most economical