[CLOSED] Australian Prepaid SIM Card Recommendations

[nakatago]

To all those who've been to/from/in Australia

I'd like to hear your thoughts about Australian prepaid SIM* cards. I'll be there for just short of two weeks and aside from call+sms (Oz only; international calls/sms not an issue), I'd like to have internet access as well (for looking things up, email and instant messaging).

Of course, the bottom line is value for money. I'm thinking of Virgin, Optus (just what exactly is the difference? it's basically the same network) or 3 but I'd like to know if you have first hand experience with them; i.e. congestion, traffic, coverage of 3G signal, reliability, etc. Of course, their prospective websites say these but we all know we have to take such things with a pinch of salt.

Thanks

*USIM if you want to get technical, but you know what I mean

[scootley]

The best I found was from Optus, because it was easy to setup and allowed well-priced internet. The people at the shop were also friendly and reasonably knowledgeable.

There was never any issue with coverage or dropped calls, etc.

Let me know if you want more details.

[nakatago]

I'm closing this thread because it's moot. It's been more than four months since I came back from Australia.

For the record, Optus Prepaid is a cheat for internet. The data rate per kilobyte is at par with the others; but the caveat is that they charge every 2MB for it; i.e. if you session is just a few kilobytes, you still get charged the 2MB rate!

FYI, I ended up using Vodafone then topping up with some sort of bonus top up at Coles where I get several more AUD's worth of credits than what I paid for (forgot how much) plus free calls to other Vodafone numbers.

[Splatted]

Shame I didn't spot the thread earlier....

FYI, "Just" prepaid mobile was given the award as one of the cheapest prepaid SIM cards by Money magazine (and as an aside, if you also are registered with the smspup website you can earn points by clicking on emails which can add 25% to 100% bonus on Just recharges).

I am using Virgin at the moment. The international plan was best value if you're essentially only phoning your partner also in Australia, as you get unlimited free calls.

We essentially got into a routine of alternating between the international plan and the long expiry plan. The reason being, while we were on international, our credit just accumulated.. then we switched to long expiry which gave us the opportunity to spend the credit talking to each other but over a 6 month expiry date...

Oh, and as for surfing... 1gb data is included on all virgin prepaid plans.
Most virgin prepaid plans have free sms virgin to virgin as well.

Anyway.. this worked well for our circumstance, but if you are phoning other people quite freqently, who don't have virgin,.. then just the international plan may be best for you.. or alternatively Just