pre paid mobile broadband

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

just wondering what peoples opinions r of the best prepaid mobile broadband company, virgin, telstra, optus, vodaphone blah blah, whats the coverage like for the company they have and how much download do they get for there buck. cheers samo

[lippa Member Find all posts View Profile Close lippa]

Re: pre paid mobile broadband

telstra best, but also dearest. 3, was cheap, but only works in metro areas, virgin/optus limited outside metro areas. try looking on whirlpool.com, heaps on there about it

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

Re: pre paid mobile broadband

thanks lippa will do. cheers samo

[Guest Close Guest]

Re: pre paid mobile broadband

I am thinking of getting a Telstra LongLife Prepaid sim for our travels in case of emergencies. It costs $60 and credit lasts for a year. From what I have read, it used to be $30. You can add prepaid broadband to that as you go.

Other than that, for prepaid mobile, my wife is on iSim, $10 credit lasts for 6 months and calls are charged by the second. 39c/min and no flagfall. Carrier is Optus.

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Re: pre paid mobile broadband

I am thinking of getting a Telstra LongLife Prepaid sim for our travels in case of emergencies. It costs $60 and credit lasts for a year. From what I have read, it used to be $30. You can add prepaid broadband to that as you go.

Thats what we have. Unlocked Optus iPhone, just pop the Telstra Prepaid SIM in, and away we go. Before any trip, I log on and make sure it has enough credit on it, and buy a data pack from the balance. Works fine as long as you get your chatty friends/relatives to call you back The remote area Telstra network is the only reason we have it, Optus works fine in the city.

Just be aware that when you go into the Telstra shop to buy this, they will tell you that it won't work in a non-telstra phone. They told me to my face that Telstra has different aerial and software in their iPhone and their sim would not work at all in an Optus iPhone (bollocks) They also told me that as soon as the Telstra sim was inserted into an Optus iPhone, it would become locked to Telstra (bollocks) When pressed, a reasonable Telstra dude will say just that they cannot guarantee that it will work. (fair enough) Probably better to go to one of the non T-Shop stores, as the sales people have more street smarts usually than the drones at the T-Shop.

Do your own research. For some phones, any of their fear campaigns _could_ be true, but not for an iPhone, thankfully the hardware and software spec is controlled by a non-phone company. Best method is to borrow a Telstra sim and test it in the phone you want to use.

Michael

[Stitch Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Stitch]

Re: pre paid mobile broadband

I use DODO pre paid, its the cheapest and recently worked every night for us checking emails and browsing the net on our trip to alice springs and ayres rock including coober pedy. It will basically work where there is optus phone coverage.

[rhs58 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rhs58]

Re: pre paid mobile broadband

Realistically all you usually need is to be checking emails from time to time. Occasional web browsing.
Telstra has by far the best coverage when you're travelling remote areas, and if your journey takes you past even the remotest Indigenous community you'll only get Telstra 3G / Next G. (Amazes me that all the kids in these communities have mobiles! Prepaid of course. Phoning each other all the time even when the community might only be 500 meters one end to the other.)
We managed for 3 months with $20/month topups (expires after 1 month) and usually had a little credit left each month.
Other providers - Optus Virgin 3 etc - not even worth looking at IMHO.

[FlyingBushPig Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyingBushPig]

Re: pre paid mobile broadband

We've just moved but are still in one of the suburbs of Melbourne, we're with 3 which is fine when you're in service but we don't get a scrap of service where we are now so we're paying for nothing now (paying off the broadband key). Unless you can guarantee you'll be in a very metro area all the time you want it, I'd just go straight to Telstra. I will be next time.