Hi All. For those using a hot spot, dongle or on a post paid plan, be aware that even if you buy mobile broadband as pre-paid, you cannot change from one Telco to another without a financial penalty.
We were in a small NSW town when both our phones clapped out (both Galaxies and at 13 months - clever buggers to be able to build in such tight planned redundancy). We had no option but to buy our phones and a hot spot from Optus - the other Telco shops were about 1.5 hours away.
Oh dear - nothing but problems since and all you get from their overseas call centre is profuse apologies, but no fix or remediation of the problem.
Last night I had a problem trying to re-charge my pre-paid data and in total frustration after being told by their call centre staff "we are very sorry and understand your frustration but you will have to wait 24 hours and try again" - I decided to try Vodafone today.
The guy in our local Vodafone shop was helpful and explained that I simply couldn't just buy one of their SIMS and put it into the hot spot I had bought from Optus because each Telco have these devices built so you cannot use another Telcos SIM card without paying a premium charge for them to change it (all over the phone or 'net). The typical charge to change your hardware over to accept another Telcos SIM was about $100-$150 !!! The salesman said they realize you want to leave them, so they don't have an incentive to offer fair prices, but rather they will either discourage you from leaving, or sock it to your wallet.
This is unlike a postplan phone where you have a 2 year contract, because part of your monthly bill is paying off the phone.
In this case I had totally paid for the hot spot, so it should be my choice to use whichever Telco I choose without a financial penalty.
Seems Telcos have the same attitude as fuel companies and Banks - find new ways to empty your pockets while smiling !
Bagmaker said
08:49 AM Apr 27, 2016
Hi Bruce
buy your phone or gizmo from ebay or somewhere without a big sign on the front window.
It should say "unlocked" on the ad -like this one www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html
then you can use which ever SIM you need at the time. Prepaid ones are good but you need to keep them current
Cheers Bagmaker
hako said
08:52 AM Apr 27, 2016
We got caught like that and decided to dump the Telstra USB modem and buy an unlocked USB modem from Ebay for just over $20 and now run whatever brand sim we like.
Good Luck.
Bruce and Bev said
01:27 PM Apr 27, 2016
thanks folks - great idea - will follow it up. Cheers
aussie_paul said
02:44 PM Apr 27, 2016
I wonder if there is much difference in efficiency of all the devices that are advertised?
Aussie Paul.
laurieoz said
04:06 PM Apr 27, 2016
Can you put SIM card from my telephone into unlocked USB modem and use the data credit on the sim card?
I will only want to use this wifi modem when traveling - can i only top the sim card up when I go away for a few months and stop when I do not go away?
banjo said
05:57 PM Apr 27, 2016
Laurieoz
Why not just use the phone as a hotspot ? simple to do if your phone has the ability. No need then for a modem or usb dongle. My wife does this with her pre paid on an iphone 5 and she seems to get heaps of free roll over data for her total spend of $50 a month, Including unlimited calls and sms, but there are cheaper plans, this is with telstra.
laurieoz said
08:11 PM Apr 27, 2016
So why are they sold if most telephones will do the same thing?
Dunmowin said
08:39 PM Apr 27, 2016
laurieoz wrote:
So why are they sold if most telephones will do the same thing?
Because not everyone has a "smart phone".
We only just changed form a standard Telstra telephone to a Tesltra Smartphone (equivalent) with 6g of data, we still have our Telstra wifi dongle, so between the two, we now have 14 g per month, to use how we need. We are on the road permanently, an find Telstra have the best service.
Hi All. For those using a hot spot, dongle or on a post paid plan, be aware that even if you buy mobile broadband as pre-paid, you cannot change from one Telco to another without a financial penalty.
We were in a small NSW town when both our phones clapped out (both Galaxies and at 13 months - clever buggers to be able to build in such tight planned redundancy). We had no option but to buy our phones and a hot spot from Optus - the other Telco shops were about 1.5 hours away.
Oh dear - nothing but problems since and all you get from their overseas call centre is profuse apologies, but no fix or remediation of the problem.
Last night I had a problem trying to re-charge my pre-paid data and in total frustration after being told by their call centre staff "we are very sorry and understand your frustration but you will have to wait 24 hours and try again" - I decided to try Vodafone today.
The guy in our local Vodafone shop was helpful and explained that I simply couldn't just buy one of their SIMS and put it into the hot spot I had bought from Optus because each Telco have these devices built so you cannot use another Telcos SIM card without paying a premium charge for them to change it (all over the phone or 'net). The typical charge to change your hardware over to accept another Telcos SIM was about $100-$150 !!! The salesman said they realize you want to leave them, so they don't have an incentive to offer fair prices, but rather they will either discourage you from leaving, or sock it to your wallet.
This is unlike a postplan phone where you have a 2 year contract, because part of your monthly bill is paying off the phone.
In this case I had totally paid for the hot spot, so it should be my choice to use whichever Telco I choose without a financial penalty.
Seems Telcos have the same attitude as fuel companies and Banks - find new ways to empty your pockets while smiling !
buy your phone or gizmo from ebay or somewhere without a big sign on the front window.
It should say "unlocked" on the ad -like this one
www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html
then you can use which ever SIM you need at the time. Prepaid ones are good but you need to keep them current
Cheers Bagmaker
Good Luck.
I wonder if there is much difference in efficiency of all the devices that are advertised?
Aussie Paul.
I will only want to use this wifi modem when traveling - can i only top the sim card up when I go away for a few months and stop when I do not go away?
Why not just use the phone as a hotspot ? simple to do if your phone has the ability. No need then for a modem or usb dongle. My wife does this with her pre paid on an iphone 5 and she seems to get heaps of free roll over data for her total spend of $50 a month, Including unlimited calls and sms, but there are cheaper plans, this is with telstra.
So why are they sold if most telephones will do the same thing?
Because not everyone has a "smart phone".
We only just changed form a standard Telstra telephone to a Tesltra Smartphone (equivalent) with 6g of data, we still have our Telstra wifi dongle, so between the two, we now have 14 g per month, to use how we need. We are on the road permanently, an find Telstra have the best service.