Mobile Phone??

Loopy Lou · Newbie

Mobile Phone??

deverall11 · Guru

Hello Lou,
Welcome to the forum. We have been on the road for 2 1/2 years now. We have two phones. One is with Telstra and the other with Virgin. Some basic facts
1) Virgin uses the Optus network
2) Coverage is on par with both. Once out in the boondock and this includes the Nullabor, you have no reception.
3) I understand that you can dial 112 in case of an emergency ONLY
4) If your phone has the ability to connect to an external antenna, you may want to experiment with a bullbar mounted antenna. I understand that this has limited coverage as well. If you are planning on travelling a bit, I would suggest a UHF radio. This is also handy for communicating with truck.
5) The Virgin phone is on a plan - $30 per month gives us $450 worth of calls and 2Gb of internet and plenty of texting. 2Gb is plenty for retrieving emails and the odd search.
6) If you are looking at Skyping, you may need a PC. We too have a PC connected to Telstra broadband. There are various plans available. We choose to pay $180 (was $150) for 12 mths and 15Gb.
I am sure there are people on this forum that would also be able to share their knowledge. Feel fre to PM me for further information.
Larry

Big Gorilla · Guru

I use a Telstra pre-paid Cap Plan. $40.00 a month gives me $550.00 worth of calls inc. International. From 6 pm to 6 am text and calls are free within Australia. I also get 1GB data a month but rarely use it. A $30.00 plan gives you about $250.00 worth of calls/text. I have a laptop with a Wifi modem. I get 3GB monthly and I have a Post-Paid plan costing $24.50. Plans are always changing so you need to do some homework. I find Telstra gives the best coverage over Optus and Vodafone.

I'd take your PC and 8 year old Nokia down to the beach. Some kind person might give you a $1.00 to use them for an anchor... biggrin biggrin biggrin

Buy a laptop with Windows 7, not 8, and a new Cellphone. The CP doesn't have to be a you beaut with all types of Apps and ringing bells. I see a flip Samsung advertised for $39.00 at the Post Office I think. If you are not tech. savvy as you state, a CP such as the Samsung is all you need.

bill12 · Guru

I have both a Samsung flip phone and a Samsung smart phone I tried to use as a tethered modem so I could get online with a Toshiba win8 laptop. Telstra is the one you will need if you go bush as optus doesn,t work in a lot of places , but is getting better. The smart phone as a modem uses a lot of megs, and with Telstra can be expensive.Boost( Telstra) have a plane with unlimited call and 2 gig for about $40. Amasim has a similar plan with optus for $40 with 4gig.The blue tick phones seem to get out better in fringe areas, and try to get one with an external aerial.The batteries in the flip phone lasts a week , and the smart phone last 2 to 3 days.I charge both rom the 12v system or a inverter. I hope this helps. Bill

-- Edited by bill12 on Sunday 26th of January 2014 02:06:15 PM

Loopy Lou · Newbie

OMG, thank you all so much for your advice. Going to ask the Grandson to come shopping with us armed with the info you have given me. At lease he will be able to communicate with the sales assistant in Techno Talk. Old PC gets very hot very quickly, might use it as a bed warmer when we are in colder climates!.Lou

native pepper · Senior Member

Loopy Lou wrote:
OMG, thank you all so much for your advice. Going to ask the Grandson to come shopping with us armed with the info you have given me. At lease he will be able to communicate with the sales assistant in Techno Talk. Old PC gets very hot very quickly, might use it as a bed warmer when we are in colder climates!.Lou

Before spending huge amounts of money on locked in plans you may never need, look around at prepaid phones and Internet. We are on the road at least 9 months of the year and have been for the last 45 years. We use unlocked Huawei quad band smart phones which operate on the 3G frequencies of all carriers, are less than $100 on eBay and as good as any you can get. We were on telstra for many years and it was expensive, then we discovered optus 3G coverage had improved so much we tried that and found we were rarely without a signal. We also carry a laptop for professional work and tablet for browsing etc. We use an Optus re-seller called Amysim, that costs us 12c a minute anywhere in the country, 12c SMS and no flag fall.

We use a separate a optus dongle on the laptop and that costs us $9.95 a gig, we could get 4 gig for $39 and all our calls and SMS are limitless and included. Then the 3 of us would be paying $120 a month, so we do it the other way, share the dongle and save a fortune. If we don't use our bandwidth during the month, unlike others, they add it on for next month. This works brilliantly for us as we normally have 4-6 gig to play with when we leave home as we use a satellite connected PC at home. For the 3 of us, $40-50 a month total. We've only had to use a dongle attached antenna twice and that was way off the beaten track in NSW.

-- Edited by native pepper on Sunday 26th of January 2014 03:00:48 PM

-- Edited by native pepper on Sunday 26th of January 2014 03:11:08 PM

jebs · Veteran Member

The best deal for a phone that I know of is with Amaysim they use the Optus network and for $39.95 per month its unlimited calls to all phones and mobiles in Australia and 4 gig download a month no plan involved just pay by the month, we have been with them for about 5 yrs now
Also there is mobile coverage at all the roadhouse's on the Nullabor when we went across last year but only for Telstra

Santa · Guru

jebs wrote:

Also there is mobile coverage at all the roadhouse's on the Nullabor when we went across last year but only for Telstra

Yep, spot on. smile

Kooroorinya Kelpie · Senior Member

Hi all. Deverall11 comment to dial 112 in an emergency will not work if you have no reception. Only mentioned this to prevent someone from thinking it was like a 000 on landlines. Cheers.

oldbobsbus · Guru

So long as you have a phone comparable with the network you intend going with then you will have no problems...

If you decide to go with anyone using the Smelstra network you will need a phone capable of using the 850mhz network out of the metro areas..

If you want to go with anyone using the Optus network you will need a phone comparable with the 900 MHz network .

We use Boost as our ISP and have no complaints...

WAssa41 · Senior Member

I have just moved from Telstra to Aldi who use the Telstra network. For $35 a month I get. 2500 minutes of voice calls to std national landlines and mobiles any time of the day, 2000sms to std national mobiles, 500 mms and 2.5 GB of data. If I need extra data $15 gets me an extra 2 GB. I connect my I-pad to the phones hot spot to use the internet. I know longer use my dongle. I have calculated that we (2 phones) save around $800 a year.

Wassa

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

Amaysim only way to go IMHO

Plendo · Guru

For the Optus network, it appears that Amaysim offer the bestvlue, and for the Telstra network Aldi. BUT both are buying coverage from the network owners, and it is likely that the coverage they have may be restricted in some areas.

Being on a work phone (with Optus) I do not know for sure, but I expect that the resellers would not have 4G access on either network.

Also when both carriers introduce there 700 mhz networks later this year they will be tightly held as well until they are replaced by something else newer and faster.

I say this not to put people off using the cheaper network resellers (Amaysim, and Aldi), but so people do not go rushing down that track and land up dissapointed when the person next to them has twice the internet speed, etc.

BTW, if I was paying for my own phone at the moment I would be on an unlimited plan from Amaysim, but I would be using that knowing that in my current situation it is all I need.

If I was touring and often in poor coverage, I would be looking seriously at Aldi, as there is no doubt that Telstra have better coverage. It may only cover 1% more of the population, but it sure is a huge geographical area that Telstra cover, and no one else does.

Good luck with your decision.

PeterInSa · Guru

Re XP, I understand that Microsoft is will no longer support XP after April, ie bugs in the operating system will not be fixed and to me that will allow viruses to more easily access your computer regardless of your Anti Virus/Firewalls.

To me I would be looking at the purchase of a Windows 7 or 8 Laptop/Notebook or.... if you are going away for months as it could well be more cost efficient to purchase locally B4 your trip.

Agree with Plendo on Aldi/Telstra to me better than Amaysim/Optus.

Peter

-- Edited by PeterInSa on Monday 27th of January 2014 02:55:27 PM

Joe50 · Guru

PeterInSa wrote:
Re XP, I understand that Microsoft is will no longer support XP after April, ie bugs in the operating system will not be fixed and to me that will allow viruses to more easily access your computer regardless of your Anti Virus/Firewalls.

While support for XP ends on April 8, Microsoft has apparently agreed to extend updates for Microsoft Security Essentials on XP until July 14, 2015. http://winsupersite.com/windows-xp/microsoft-extends-anti-malware-support-windows-xp

Joe

Santa · Guru

Anyone running XP and using their puter for banking etc would be wise to look at alternatives now, don't leave it to the last minute.

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

Santa wrote:
Anyone running XP and using their puter for banking etc would be wise to look at alternatives now, don't leave it to the last minute.

why would any sensible person use a pc for internet banking? biggrin

Diggings · Senior Member

I bought a basic Telstra phone and a large external antennae and find this setup to be the best I have had so far, next phone will be a Telstra Dave or similar smart phone with aerial connection.

Waterbags · Veteran Member

Loopy Lou wrote:
Hi,
Hubby and I are about to set off around Oz for the big trip. Both of us are complete techno phobes, I still use Windows XP and my mobile is an 8 year old Nokia! We would like some advice on the best value mobile plan, we want to be able to email and check stuff out on the internet as well as calling and texting home to let the kids know how much of their inheritance we have spent!! Free talk time is not much use if it has to be after 7pm dues to the time difference in WA. Also wondered about being able to skype. Apologies if this is in the wrong place - we are "Forum Virgins". Thanks. Loopy Lou

If you are travelling the outback, Telstra will provide the most extensive phone coverage. However, you need to be aware of the different types of services... Telstra offer 3G and Next G phones. If you purchase a phone from a Telstra agent, it will more than likely be a 3G phone, However, most phones from Telstra shops will be Next G.

3G phones operate in capital cities and some major towns. However, if you want a phone to operate in the outback, then a Next G is a must, and preferably a Next G Blue Tick phone.

Before leaving on a recent trip to the NT, I purchased a Nokia windows phone for my wife, we found out later it was a 3G Phone. Once we were west of Dalby we had no service, so by the time we reached Charleville we had to buy a Next G phone so we had service.

I also have Nokia using the Aldi service. Aldi utilize part of the Telstra service and from the performance, I expect this will be the 3G network, great for capital cities and some major towns but have very limited performance outback.