A gsm pre-paid sim card can be purchased in any supermarket for $2
(Vodafone), up to $15 (with included credit). Additional credit can be
bought at supermarkets, servos, newsagencies etc

The three gsm carriers have reasonable coverage. They are Telstra, Optus and
Vodafone (all other retail offerings use one of these 3 carriers). I use
Vodafone - simply because their rates are best for my usage pattern.

The best coverage is NOT a gsm service. It's Telstra's NextG service. A
phone and connection can be bought at any Telstra booth or shop from about
$100AUD. All larger shopping malls will have a Telstra shop or booth.



"Norman" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

Does anyone have advice on the best mobile phone deals for use while in
Australia for a few weeks? Most of the calls will be to/from the UK though
some
will be to/from Australian landlines and mobiles. Some of the UK calls
will be
quite long - around an hour.

A fair bit of the time will be spent in country areas of NSW and
Queensland so
network coverage will be a consideration, though not over-riding if there
is a
big cost penalty. I appreciate that there are extensive no-coverage areas
on
all networks.

A package including a phone is attractive as it eliminates possible
non-compatibility between phone and sim card. I don't need to know the
phone
number before leaving the UK so picking something up on arrival in
Australia
would be fine.

Norman
--
Derbyshire, UK