Prepaid SIM's in Australia

Will be travelling to Sydney, Canberra and Perth in Febuary 2005 and
want to take my unlocked GSM tri-band phone from Canada to use while I
in Australia for about a month.

What would be the best option in terms of prepaid SIM's from an
operator who services all three cities? Would like to have voicemail
and would make calls both during the day and the evening but not more
than 10-15 minutes / day.

Would I need to get a different SIM for each city to avoid
roaming/long distance charges or would one SIM serve for all three
cities?

Any feedback on prices and operators and also best place to purchase
SIM afetr arriving in Sydney (Kingsfrod Smith Airport) would be very
welcome.

**** All replies to the newsgroups please ****

Cheers

Roaming, and long distance charges within a country are a North American
thing, not found in Australia. Mobile phones are treated as a separate
operation to fixed lines. Your number will be a generic mobile number. All
calls within Australia - to whatever city, no matter where you are within
the country when you call will be charged the same. Intra network calls (eg.
Optus to Optus) sometimes attract lower rates. You will be able to call any
fixed line or any mobile number no matter which provider you choose.

Essentially there are three service providers - Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.
All three offer an extensive gsm service in the cities you mention (and
indeed everywhere else too). There are a large number of 'resellers' -
Orange, Virgin, B etc etc - but they just package the service from one of
the three in different ways.

All 3 providers offer pre-paid sim cards, which can be bought in booths and
stores in every mall; and in most supermarkets etc throughout the country.
Recharge is equally easy.

Your unlocked triband Canadian gsm phone will work just fine in Australia.

There's little difference in the rates etc on offer. Personally I use
Vodafone, but I've used the other two when they have special deals too.

Google!!

http://www.vodafone.com.au/

http://www.optus.com.au/portal/site/...6801540aRCR D

http://www.communic8.com.au/




Have Fun!




"Gautam Subra" wrote in message
...

Will be travelling to Sydney, Canberra and Perth in Febuary 2005 and
want to take my unlocked GSM tri-band phone from Canada to use while I
in Australia for about a month.

What would be the best option in terms of prepaid SIM's from an
operator who services all three cities? Would like to have voicemail
and would make calls both during the day and the evening but not more
than 10-15 minutes / day.

Would I need to get a different SIM for each city to avoid
roaming/long distance charges or would one SIM serve for all three
cities?

Any feedback on prices and operators and also best place to purchase
SIM afetr arriving in Sydney (Kingsfrod Smith Airport) would be very
welcome.

**** All replies to the newsgroups please ****

Cheers

"Gautam Subra" wrote:


Will be travelling to Sydney, Canberra and Perth in Febuary
2005 and want to take my unlocked GSM tri-band phone from
Canada to use while I in Australia for about a month.

Which 3 bands? A 900/1800/1900 MHz would be ideal, as Australia
uses 900 and 1800 only. All three carriers use 900 MHz
predominately, with 1800 providing some reserve capacity. A
phone without 900 MHz will be fairly useless (and completely
useless on the Telstra network due to a configuration
"feature"). There are many 900-only phones still in use.

What would be the best option in terms of prepaid SIM's from
an operator who services all three cities? Would like to have
voicemail and would make calls both during the day and the
evening but not more than 10-15 minutes / day.

Would I need to get a different SIM for each city to avoid
roaming/long distance charges or would one SIM serve for all
three cities?

Within Australia, there's no distance-related price difference
for calls. With one minor local exception, roaming agreements
are non-existent, so you're stuck with the national carrier you
choose. All three (Telstra, Optus and Vodafone) have very good
city and large town coverage. Country areas have very patchy
coverage, except that Vodafone covers major east-coast highways
on a government contract. The other two haven't taken up the
offer of allowing roaming onto these Vodafone cells.

Any feedback on prices and operators and also best place to
purchase SIM afetr arriving in Sydney (Kingsfrod Smith
Airport) would be very welcome.

See http://www.ausmobile.com under "Australian Pre-Paid Guide".

Prepaid is very popular, with SIMs and "recharges" being
available from supermarkets and a great many other small and
large stores. Basic proof of identity is a government
requirement at point of initial SIM purchase, but this
requirement is sometimes ignored.

Incoming calls are free of charge, but charges may apply for
voicemail retrieval.

John

On Fri, 24 Dec 2004, at 16:05:15 [GMT +1000] (17:05:15 Friday, 24 December
2004 where I live) "A Mate" wrote:

Your unlocked triband Canadian gsm phone will work just fine in Australia.

Err, not really, unless you have GSM800, as the GSM1800 towers are "hidden".

(Please correct me if wrong).

--
Elevators smell different to midgets.

On Fri, 24 Dec 2004, at 18:12:34 [GMT +1100] (18:12:34 Friday, 24 December
2004 where I live) "John Henderson" wrote:

Prepaid is very popular, with SIMs and "recharges" being
available from supermarkets and a great many other small and
large stores. Basic proof of identity is a government
requirement at point of initial SIM purchase, but this
requirement is sometimes ignored.

Lot's of prepaid "caps" being sold at present; ie spend $49-00 and get up to
$500-00 worth of calls.

Prepaids in OZ can also be recharged from ATM machines - very handy.

--
Who do you have to sleep with to get service around here?

On Fri, 24 Dec 2004, at 19:31:11 [GMT +1100] (19:31:11 Friday, 24 December
2004 where I live) "John Phillips" wrote:

Err, not really, unless you have GSM800, as the GSM1800 towers are "hidden".

Sorry, typo. You need GSM 900 at least, but usually cannot get GSM 1800
without this.

--
10 out of 5 doctors feel it's OK to be skitzo!

You're WRONG!!!

Triband phones are 900/1800 (for most of the world) and 1900 for North
America! I OWN one, and use it in Australia and Canada!! There are also 4
band phones (don't go there - you obviously don't understand much really at
all!!)



I often wonder why people with no knowledge, and nothing to contribute
persist in misleading others!!!


'Spose it IS Christmas Eve, school's been out for a
while..........................................





"John Phillips" wrote in message
...


On Fri, 24 Dec 2004, at 16:05:15 [GMT +1000] (17:05:15 Friday, 24 December
2004 where I live) "A Mate" wrote:

Your unlocked triband Canadian gsm phone will work just fine in
Australia.

Err, not really, unless you have GSM800, as the GSM1800 towers are
"hidden".

(Please correct me if wrong).

--
Elevators smell different to midgets.

Gautam Subra wrote:
[deleted]
Would like to have voicemail and would make calls both during the day
and the evening but not more than 10-15 minutes / day.
[deleted]

Adding to the other responses:

Note that calling Canada can be quite expensive, so you may want to
(also) look at other options:

- (Prepaid) Phonecards.

- Call-back services.

If you (Google Groups) search this group on these keywords, you will
probably find (recent) past discussions on these topics. And probably
someone will repeat his 'recording' on the call-back services. So I will
concentrate on the phonecards.

Phonecards are cheapest from a normal phone, but also work from mobile
phones. The Telstra PhoneAway card even has a voicemail box, so you
would not even need a mobile phone to have voicemail.i

If you use these cards frequently and want to save on calling costs to
Canada, then it is probably best to buy both a flexible but 'expensive'
one like Telstra's PhoneAway card and a less flexible but cheap one. For
the latter see http://www.ozprepaidcards.com.au.

Telstra's PhoneAway card is very flexible. It has a local free call
number which can be called from 'everywhere'. I never had a public phone
(booth) where I had to pay for the local call. You don't even need a
coin. *Hotels* etc. however might/will charge for normally free calls.
The card be recharged by buying new cards/vouchers, but also by credit
card. You can also use the card in most other countries and you can
perform all free services (like checking if there is voicemail, not
listening to the voicemail message itself) from these countries. So I,
in The Netherlands, can check my 'Aussie' voicemail box and it does not
cost me a cent. I even used their customer service desk for half an hour
from The Netlerlands without it costing anything. Of course this
flexibility comes at a price, which is the higher call rates. Hence my
advice to get two different cards.

For details on Telstra' PhoneAway card and other Telstra Calling Cards
(I have only used the PhoneAway card), see:

http://www.telstra.com.au/callingcardshop/index.htm

I hope this helps.

Gautam Subra wrote:
[deleted]
Would like to have voicemail and would make calls both during the day
and the evening but not more than 10-15 minutes / day.
[deleted]

Adding to the other responses:

Note that calling Canada can be quite expensive, so you may want to
(also) look at other options:

- (Prepaid) Phonecards.

- Call-back services.

If you (Google Groups) search this group on these keywords, you will
probably find (recent) past discussions on these topics. And probably
someone will repeat his 'recording' on the call-back services. So I will
concentrate on the phonecards.

Phonecards are cheapest from a normal phone, but also work from mobile
phones. The Telstra PhoneAway card even has a voicemail box, so you
would not even need a mobile phone to have voicemail.i

If you use these cards frequently and want to save on calling costs to
Canada, then it is probably best to buy both a flexible but 'expensive'
one like Telstra's PhoneAway card and a less flexible but cheap one. For
the latter see http://www.ozprepaidcards.com.au.

Telstra's PhoneAway card is very flexible. It has a local free call
number which can be called from 'everywhere'. I never had a public phone
(booth) where I had to pay for the local call. You don't even need a
coin. *Hotels* etc. however might/will charge for normally free calls.
The card be recharged by buying new cards/vouchers, but also by credit
card. You can also use the card in most other countries and you can
perform all free services (like checking if there is voicemail, not
listening to the voicemail message itself) from these countries. So I,
in The Netherlands, can check my 'Aussie' voicemail box and it does not
cost me a cent. I even used their customer service desk for half an hour
from The Netlerlands without it costing anything. Of course this
flexibility comes at a price, which is the higher call rates. Hence my
advice to get two different cards.

For details on Telstra' PhoneAway card and other Telstra Calling Cards
(I have only used the PhoneAway card), see:

http://www.telstra.com.au/callingcardshop/index.htm

I hope this helps.

On Fri, 24 Dec 2004, at 19:22:22 [GMT +1000] (20:22:22 Friday, 24 December
2004 where I live) "A Mate" wrote:

I often wonder why people with no knowledge, and nothing to contribute
persist in misleading others!!!

**** off idiot.

I made a typo and corrected it.

Get stuffed!

--
How do I set my laser printer for stun?