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 !