Traveling to Australia - best prepaid plan for unlocked iPhone 3G?

virgin is the way to go

i'm a tourist in oz, i've been here 10 days and i've just wasted days of my life figuring out this seemingly basic info. for starters don't go into any mobile phone shops - everything's geared up towards voice calls and SMS, they just don't understand phrases like 'data plan' here. it seems internet in general is very expensive in oz - ADSL is mega expensive here and mobile phones are no different.

Optus and Telstra offer pathetic caps on data on their contract plans but you have to sign up for 12 months and get credit checked which you won't pass unless you have a job and have a credit file here. most prepaid plans are ridiculously expensive for data apart from virgin. Buy a virgin mobile pay as you go sim card then go online and you can add data plan through the web site when you log into your online account. they charge AUD10/300 MB. voice calls are quite expensive especially overseas calls but hotels have wifi - so use skype and it's cheap cheap cheap!

speak to virgin and they'll tell you that their sim cards are everywhere but that is rubbish - i wasted half a day walking round supermarkets, newsagent, post offices, etc. all of which they said stocked them which was plain wrong - i eventually found one in the vodafone shop on pitt st, downtown sydney. works great with ultrasn0w.

remember to add the data plan through the online control panel after you've registered, otherwise you get charged 0.2c/KB ($2/MB)

Telstra PREPAID (note I didn't say contract) and you won't go wrong.

They have the fastest mobile broadband network in the world.

Only AU network to support the 850mhz band which works great with the iphone so no dropped calls.

Enough said.

For $60AU you get 250min talk, 250sms, 750mb data
For $100AU you get 500min talk, 500sms, 750mb data, + $40 balance credit to spend on more talk time/sms/data.

I live in Australia and you have a few options..

1st of all there is the biggest meanest network- Testra, they have the best coverage by far, but are super expensive.
Then Optus would be next, they have cheap prices, but their network is a little slow in spots, but you could like with it.
Vodafone. Is quite has about the same network coverage as optus, but are faster because there is less people using them.
Than there is Virgin as someone said before me. They use Optus's network but are cheap cheap cheap.

But if you do plan to travel lots, than network coverage if fine for all over cities (sometimes patchy inbetween).


Also, in Australia, we dont do the whole get so many minutes, and so many texts etc. What happens is you pay for your thing, and get a set amount of credit to use each.. eg.. Pay $49, get $400 credit to use, and calls are about $0.40 per 30 seconds, and sms's are $0.25 each..

That all probably does not make sense, but let me know if you want to know anything else

Personal preference is Optus, mainly due the fact that they have great deals. I used to be Voda but switched when I got the iPhone, my personal experience with Vodafone was they had average coverage and it was slow and poor CS. Try Optus first as then tend to give out a fair amount of data. If that fails go to Virgin, its the same network just with poorer CS and its cheaper.

Oh and remember your credit expires after 30 days, don't forget it.

"Three" actually has decent coverage in Adelaide, check it out their prepaid plan. i think the $49 Cap would be the best option for you.

http://www.three.com.au/cs/ContentS...usinessVideoCallingTemplate&cid=1215747848160

Hi everyone,

I am going to spend December and January in Melbourne and I am looking for a prepaid sim including a data plan just like the thread-starter.

Any recommendations regarding where to purchase this stuff in Melbourne?

Is the information from this thread still valid or are there new/better options?

Thank you so much in advance,

Kvidens

What ever you do, dont go with Telstra. They are rip off merchants that need to be knocked down a peg or two. They have better coverage yes but for where ever you are likely to go you would be fine with any company. my 2 cents.

Australia is a big country with a small population so there is probably 80% of the country where you will not get service. But the time you will spend in that 80% is maybe .0001% of your time.

I am with Vodafone and they claim to cover 98% of the pop. and apparently they have the weakest coverage.

What I have heard is that virgin is the cheapest so go for that.

Oh and never had a dropped call despite living in a rural area.

If you're travelling around the country go with 'Optus'.

If you see a 'Telstra' store just burn it down. Too expensive.

For cities '3' or 'Virgin' are pretty good for prepaid iPhone.