Note there are some restrictions on the maximum speeds but perhaps that will not matter in the bush anyway. I am thinking of Aldi currently. The price certainly looks better that Telstra direct. Perhaps about half price for a modest prepaid or plan.
Any comments welcome !
We were away with Think which uses Vodaphone. Off the highway and out of the city NOTHING for days. We knew that anyway from past experience. We have a Telstra data dongle and that was much better coverage. We are thinking of ditching the home phone line and going only two mobiles with more data allowance and no dongle. We are not currently on the road all the time nor will be for a while.
Jaahn
-- Edited by Jaahn on Monday 2nd of May 2016 09:16:09 AM
banjo said
10:56 AM May 2, 2016
Just be aware that yes now 4G but no where near the coverage of the Telstra 4G service once away from the main cities.
Telstra with all their problems are still the best deal for reliable country wide coverage, albeit they still have some "holes" here and there.
LLD said
11:15 AM May 2, 2016
Been travelling with groups of people for many years now and we regularly find that the only ones getting reception are on Telstra. However, we have all found we need to turn our phone off to save our battery when phone is on pocket and riding a motorbike The phone is constantly searching for a signal and where there is no signal, the battery works really hard. Travelling from Port Augusta to Darwin there are huge gaps with no coverage. OK in the car on charge but will flatten very quickly if walking around with phone in pocket.
Reckon every Telco exec and Govt telco decision makers should be sat in the back of a car made to travel all our A & B roads and do business as per in their office whilst travelling and find out that reception is out there. It's OK saying they have covered 95% of the population when they only cover a small % of the country.
Know a few grey nomads who have taken up a satellite phone / TV deal. It's expensive but if you need it, expense is not an issue.
Explorer said
05:49 PM May 2, 2016
Hi, A lot of the resellers claim to offer full Telstra/ Optus service but in fact they do not.
I tried Southern Telephone Company on a Telstra service that was great while I was within cooee of the big smoke. They would not listen to my complaints & were 100% going to hold Me to My contract until I contacted the TIO. Agree to full refund & took their phone back within three days. (STC claim to be the third largest Telco in Aus.)
I can only presume that They didn't want too much fuss due to false advertising etc.
If You want to get away from the costal strip then unfortunately You are stuck with Telstra IMO.
I do have a sat phone which is great for remote areas but they are not overly user friendly or as convenient as a mobile.
Mike.
tonyd said
06:40 PM May 2, 2016
I like Aldi for the 365-day expiry they offer on pay as you go (don't use phone much, so hat's convenient).
Last time I looked at Woolies plan, you'd have to mortgage your house to pay for a call!
Also have deals with Yomojo (formerly Yatango) and Amaysim. Both use Optus, so if I want to make calls I have to sit in my backyard . . . 15km from the Perth CBD. Not really good enough, but, hey, we live in a Third World country.
Cheers, Tony
-- Edited by tonyd on Monday 2nd of May 2016 06:42:02 PM
PeterD said
07:55 PM May 2, 2016
Remember that Telstra resellers are not able to provide the same coverage as the mainstream Telstra offerings. With reseller plans you may get slightly better coverage as the other big companies but I am not sure if they are any better.
Bruce and Bev said
09:51 PM May 2, 2016
We have a prepaid Telstra Dave phone with external car and mobile aerials when needed. We only put money on it when Telstra is the only provider in the areas we are travelling.
We used to have 2 Galaxy 6 phones with Virgin and although the coverage was only good in the cities, the phones died after 14 months (hows that for planned redundancy) and in the area we were staying in at the time, we could only access an Optus shop. Wish we hadn't - they have been nothing but trouble - poor service, call centre staff who don't speak understandable English and coverage in the same spot can be great one day and non-existant the next. By the way, Optus now own Virgin, but still trade the Virgin name as Optus has lost so many customers over the past few years to the extent they sacked the previous CEO but replaced him with another no hoper.
Went into Vodafone the other day and the shop was dead so I was able to have a good yap to the salesman. He said don't believe the coverage areas that any of the Telcos show on their web pages. He showed me the public page I had looked at which showed the area I am in as totally 4G with no gaps at all. He then showed me a page only available to Vodafone staff and there were 3G patches all over the same area. His comment - don't believe anything the Telcos tell you !!
Allany said
10:28 PM May 2, 2016
Two years ago i was travelling in western Queensland and using an Aldi sim card
the only place I couldn't get service was Barcaldine
Allan
Jaahn said
10:40 PM May 2, 2016
PeterD wrote:
Remember that Telstra resellers are not able to provide the same coverage as the mainstream Telstra offerings. With reseller plans you may get slightly better coverage as the other big companies but I am not sure if they are any better.
Hi Peter,
Is that a known fact or not ? Why are they not able to provide the same coverage ? I believe they all use the same towers as Telstra does not set up seperate ones for the resellers. I have said the speed has restrictions which affects downloads I guess but what else.
I have found that my Think coverage is the same as the genuine Vodafone as far as I could see. IF there were towers it was Ok but not many towers is the problem !
Jaahn
colnden said
07:03 PM May 3, 2016
We use Boost and for all intents and purposes it is Telstra. The only tower we dont have access to is 4Gx towers which is the technology that is now being rolled out . For $40 pm with no contract we have unlimited calls text and mms. Data is 3 gb to use over the weekdays in the month and 2gb bonus every weekend from 9 pm fri to midnight sun night. Came up inland from melbourne to cairns and the odd spot had the usual no service that we got with telstra. Was a 20 year customerof telstra but now switched both phones to boost and very happy.
Den n Col
colnden said
07:04 PM May 3, 2016
We use Boost and for all intents and purposes it is Telstra. The only tower we dont have access to is 4Gx towers which is the technology that is now being rolled out . For $40 pm with no contract we have unlimited calls text and mms. Data is 3 gb to use over the weekdays in the month and 2gb bonus every weekend from 9 pm fri to midnight sun night. Came up inland from melbourne to cairns and the odd spot had the usual no service that we got with telstra. Was a 20 year customerof telstra but now switched both phones to boost and very happy.
Den n Col
Jaahn said
01:15 PM May 4, 2016
Cheers Colnden,
I will look at them too and see what is currently offered.
Hi
How does this affect the availability of cheap phone plans that might work most places.
Woolworths Mobile, Aldi Get 4G On Telstra's Network From Today
-- Edited by Jaahn on Monday 2nd of May 2016 09:16:09 AM
Telstra with all their problems are still the best deal for reliable country wide coverage, albeit they still have some "holes" here and there.
Reckon every Telco exec and Govt telco decision makers should be sat in the back of a car made to travel all our A & B roads and do business as per in their office whilst travelling and find out that reception is out there. It's OK saying they have covered 95% of the population when they only cover a small % of the country.
Know a few grey nomads who have taken up a satellite phone / TV deal. It's expensive but if you need it, expense is not an issue.
Hi, A lot of the resellers claim to offer full Telstra/ Optus service but in fact they do not.
I tried Southern Telephone Company on a Telstra service that was great while I was within cooee of the big smoke. They would not listen to my complaints & were 100% going to hold Me to My contract until I contacted the TIO. Agree to full refund & took their phone back within three days. (STC claim to be the third largest Telco in Aus.)
I can only presume that They didn't want too much fuss due to false advertising etc.
If You want to get away from the costal strip then unfortunately You are stuck with Telstra IMO.
I do have a sat phone which is great for remote areas but they are not overly user friendly or as convenient as a mobile.
Mike.
I like Aldi for the 365-day expiry they offer on pay as you go (don't use phone much, so hat's convenient).
Last time I looked at Woolies plan, you'd have to mortgage your house to pay for a call!
Also have deals with Yomojo (formerly Yatango) and Amaysim. Both use Optus, so if I want to make calls I have to sit in my backyard . . . 15km from the Perth CBD. Not really good enough, but, hey, we live in a Third World country.
Cheers, Tony
-- Edited by tonyd on Monday 2nd of May 2016 06:42:02 PM
We used to have 2 Galaxy 6 phones with Virgin and although the coverage was only good in the cities, the phones died after 14 months (hows that for planned redundancy) and in the area we were staying in at the time, we could only access an Optus shop. Wish we hadn't - they have been nothing but trouble - poor service, call centre staff who don't speak understandable English and coverage in the same spot can be great one day and non-existant the next. By the way, Optus now own Virgin, but still trade the Virgin name as Optus has lost so many customers over the past few years to the extent they sacked the previous CEO but replaced him with another no hoper.
Went into Vodafone the other day and the shop was dead so I was able to have a good yap to the salesman. He said don't believe the coverage areas that any of the Telcos show on their web pages. He showed me the public page I had looked at which showed the area I am in as totally 4G with no gaps at all. He then showed me a page only available to Vodafone staff and there were 3G patches all over the same area. His comment - don't believe anything the Telcos tell you !!
Two years ago i was travelling in western Queensland and using an Aldi sim card
the only place I couldn't get service was Barcaldine
Allan
Hi Peter,
Is that a known fact or not ? Why are they not able to provide the same coverage ? I believe they all use the same towers as Telstra does not set up seperate ones for the resellers. I have said the speed has restrictions which affects downloads I guess but what else.
I have found that my Think coverage is the same as the genuine Vodafone as far as I could see. IF there were towers it was Ok but not many towers is the problem !
Jaahn
Cheers Colnden,
I will look at them too and see what is currently offered.
Jaahn