Mobile phone contracts HELP please

[Lov_Dog]

(couldn't find a thread but if there is one, mods please merge)

Since living in the States, I've not kept current with packages here at home and I'm back for a short period of time, thus, I'm not likely to require a contract, more a monthly/pre-paid option.

So I need assistance on plans and coverage, current information and usage advice would be greatly appreciated.

I will be using iPhone 5 (unlocked), probably don't require terribly much voice call included, however ~5gb data would be great, text message optional yet non-essential.

I hear bad things regarding Vodafone coverage and outages, is this a thing ?

My locations will primarily include Gold Coast and surrounds as well as SYD.

TIA


-cb.

 

[FreshSoulL]

Telstra - Best
Optus/Vodafone - Meh.

Im with Voda, down in sydney it isnt the greatest but does its job. Was worse in recent years but seems to be much better nowadays.

Im on the $69 plan.. Iphone 5S 2 year plan. 2GB data (More than enough) $700 worth of calls to anyone (includes international), free calls to vodafone contacts and unlimited text.

 

[FreshSoulL]

How long are you in Australia for?

 

[Nano]

Telstra - Best
Optus/Vodafone - Meh.

Im with Voda, down in sydney it isnt the greatest but does its job. Was worse in recent years but seems to be much better nowadays.

Im on the $69 plan.. Iphone 5S 2 year plan. 2GB data (More than enough) $700 worth of calls to anyone (includes international), free calls to vodafone contacts and unlimited text.

I'm with Voda and **** me I can't stand them anymore, there value is so shity and such a ****ing rip

 

[FreshSoulL]

I'm with Voda and **** me I can't stand them anymore, there value is so shity and such a ****ing rip

I dont know, ive been experiencing better days with them. I remember few years back they were giving me the shits but things seemed to have changed.

They also gave my family half price for 3 months aha how much we complained.

 

[Pom_81]

Having dealt with Telstra's customer service (admittedly not for mobiles, for landline and broadband etc) I'd rather put my genitals in a blender than give those pricks a single cent more than I need to.

 

[Papa Emeritus]

God sick of terrible Optus coverage so I am on Telstra prepaid now. I don't see why I would ever need to call them, so not worried about that.

Loving the 4G coverage a lot.

 

[FreshSoulL]

God sick of terrible Optus coverage so I am on Telstra prepaid now. I don't see why I would ever need to call them, so not worried about that.

Loving the 4G coverage a lot.

How much are you paying per month?? whats the deal?

 

[Papa Emeritus]

Well you can recharge as much as you want but personally I recharge with $50 which gets me calls and sms which I don't use much and 700MB of data.

The thing I love is I can then spend that $50 on more data. $20 for another 700MB so effectively I get 2.1GB by buying two data packs for $40 and the 700MB I get initially. Which is plenty for me for 30 days. The other $10 just gets eaten up if I run out of data or I think it might even roll over if I recharge again. Whatevers. I was spending more than that on Optus postpaid and they wanted $60 + some stupid amount per month for a new phone for 24 months with only 1.5GB data.

So I bought a phone outright and here I am.

 

[Moey999]

Heh, i work at Vodafone (I'm actually at work now)

if you want unlimited, go on a sim only plan. 50 bucks a month will get you 3gb data, unlimited calls in australia incl 1800 1300 numbers etc, and unlimited text msgs in oz and overseas. obviously it doesn't come with a phone (hence the sim only), but the beauty about this plan is that it has no lock in contract, e.g. you can cancel whenever you want. it also covers 4g, so (hoping you have a relatively new phone) you can use your data very efficiently.

Stats don't lie:
Percentile coverage of the 3 major providers:
Telstra, 98.2%
Optus, 97.1%
Vodafone, 96.3%.

Not much of a margin.

4G Data Speeds (download) in Sydney
Vodafone, 33.9Mbps
Telstra, 20.7Mbps
Optus, 18.3Mbps
Source

We have the cheapest plans available, where a monthbymonth BYO Telstra plan (virtually the same as the Voda SimOnly plan) with unlimited calls etc and 3gb data is $130 a month. See here.

Vodafone doesn't have the aim to become the best phone provider in Australia, or be the most affordable etc. Vodafone's aim is to become the most admired company in Australia, and they're well on their way.

Everyone knows the highly publicised Vodafail, where they merged with 3 iirc and it destroyed their traffic and all the systems and reception went down. Now, they've built so much onto their company that if their traffic was to increased 10fold, the system would handle it.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

Im with voda and i have never had a problem, except on mothers day a few years back when the network completely shit itself. 45bucks a month, infinite texts and calls, 1gb data, free social networks and youtube plus my s3. Will be getting a free upgrade to s5 in 3 months also. I think you could try amaysim? 40bucks a month gets you unlimited calls and texts plus 4gb data on a No lock in contract. Not to sure hoe the network is though??

 

[Moey999]

Amaysim is f*cked, i was with them and they kicked me off because i literally was on the phone too much. Unlimited plan my ass. They use the older optus towers iirc, the ones optus don't need anymore lol.

If you want 5gb, go on the $65 sim only plan, unlimited and all that crap + 5gb data.

There's a 28 day cooling off period, so if you have any network issues come back within that 28 days and we'll look it up for you, see and problems and terminate your contract straight away.

If you want further proof that our connection isn't as bad as people say, here's a fun fact. In the city (CBD area), Vodafone and Optus have struck a deal where if the Optus bandwidth starts to get overfilled (too much traffic) Optus redirects it onto the Vodafone network because they know we can handle it and it's completely stable.

 

[chris_e_fresh]

voda lost 1.6 million customers because there service sucks

but they have awesome plans

 

[Hacky McAxe]

I was with Vodafone a long time ago and it was a nightmare. Went to Optus for a while and it was good at first then it degraded. Got to the point where I couldn't get the internet at work, at the local hospital where I spent a good amount of time, Umina and Kiama had no internet, all the while my mrs on Vodafone had no issues at all. Ended up switching back to Vodafone. Still get some problems here and there but no issues with calls and the internet works a lot better than Optus.

I always wanted to go on Telstra but the prices are way too expensive.

 

[Fruitty Pebbles]

I'm with Voda and **** me I can't stand them anymore, there value is so shity and such a ****ing rip

Voda is Sh!thouse I was with them for like 2 years worst time of my life bad reception everywhere I went. im with Optus now cant complain their 4G network is pretty decent

 

[Fruitty Pebbles]

Heh, i work at Vodafone (I'm actually at work now)

if you want unlimited, go on a sim only plan. 50 bucks a month will get you 3gb data, unlimited calls in australia incl 1800 1300 numbers etc, and unlimited text msgs in oz and overseas. obviously it doesn't come with a phone (hence the sim only), but the beauty about this plan is that it has no lock in contract, e.g. you can cancel whenever you want. it also covers 4g, so (hoping you have a relatively new phone) you can use your data very efficiently.

Stats don't lie:
Percentile coverage of the 3 major providers:
Telstra, 98.2%
Optus, 97.1%
Vodafone, 96.3%.

Not much of a margin.

4G Data Speeds (download) in Sydney
Vodafone, 33.9Mbps
Telstra, 20.7Mbps
Optus, 18.3Mbps
Source

We have the cheapest plans available, where a monthbymonth BYO Telstra plan (virtually the same as the Voda SimOnly plan) with unlimited calls etc and 3gb data is $130 a month. See here.

Vodafone doesn't have the aim to become the best phone provider in Australia, or be the most affordable etc. Vodafone's aim is to become the most admired company in Australia, and they're well on their way.

Everyone knows the highly publicised Vodafail, where they merged with 3 iirc and it destroyed their traffic and all the systems and reception went down. Now, they've built so much onto their company that if their traffic was to increased 10fold, the system would handle it.

hmmmm... include the S5 without handset repayments and ill think about this offer

 

[Moey999]

hmmmm... include the S5 without handset repayments and ill think about this offer

hahaha S5 on an unlimited plan is $79 inc handset repayments, comes with 3gb
$84 for 5gb including handset repayments

 

[Moey999]

Everyone says Voda is shithouse etc but this was years ago, try it now and you'd be surprised.

 

[Nano]

Everyone says Voda is shithouse etc but this was years ago, try it now and you'd be surprised.

Nah still hate them lol

 

[c-b-b]

I was with Optus for a long time, was dropping out in all the places I would need it.

In the last 3 months I switched to Boost Prepaid (they use Telstra 3G network). There's only one common spot it drops out in, other than that have talked upwards of 30 minutes on a single call while driving with no drop outs so pretty happy.

Costs wise it is $40 per month - unlimited calls and texts and 3 gig of data (although I think new customers now get 2 gig).