Travel Technology - Best Australian Prepay Sim card?

I am planning a trip to Oz and have an unlocked Sony Ericsson W810i with Virgin Mobile UK.

What is the best/cheapest prepay sim for Australia. I am leaning to either getting Virgin Mobile australia or Vodaphone Australia. Vodaphone Australia have the edge due to the fact they actually have a store in Sydney Airport Arrivals.

I am not much of a talker but I text a hell of a lot. Plus want to be able to picture message phonecam shots to my flickr page.

Go Virgin - it uses the Optus network which has better coverage than Vodafone, and while YMMV it's cheaper than the rest.

Where in Sydney will I be able to pick up a Virgin sim card then?

How bad is the vodaphone network as I have seen they do have a shop in the airport

See my post under the Euro SIM card sticky. In general my experience with Vodafone was fine in terms of call service and reliability. However, the price was a rip, particularly if you don't plan to do much calling. And customer service was mediocre - make sure the shop sets up your account (if they can do that) with all the correct promos or you will waste a lot of time on the phone trying to sort it out. the website was also worthless.

Go Virgin - it uses the Optus network which has better coverage than Vodafone, and while YMMV it's cheaper than the rest.
On my recent trip to AU I, too, found the Optus network to have much better voice and data coverage than Vodafone (especially along the south coast between Melbourne and Adelaide).

I second Boraxo's advice. Voda's service hotline will likely give a message 'due to unforeseen call volumes we can't help you right now...' or similar.

Pathetic. However if you get the shop to do the setup and check it for you, you should be fine.

I signed up to a Voda 3G broadband plan (it uses the Huawei 3G modem, same as voda UK & 3, same as Optus here too).

If you had such a UK modem you might be able to get a prepaid 3G SIM/ broadband prepaid.

This 3G SIM is just a mobile number anyway, so it can be used in a phone OR the USB modem or a EEE PC, so you can use it just for texting and broadband, plus the odd phone call. All at the normal Voda prepaid phone rate (plus whatever 3G broadband you choose).

If you're wanting to get geeky or whatever on this option, there is discussion on the forum link of whirlpool.net.au, Australia's broadband forum.


Hope this is useful info.

I've used Virgin on my recent vacation (Jan 08) and it was perfectly fine. Coverage was fine with the exception of some back-country in WA.

Bought the SIM in downtown Syndey, there's a store right below the AMP Tower.

One downside: Virgin did not accept my personal Swiss-Issued Visa for online top-up, had to use my Corporate MC instead :p

If you are staying in metropolitan areas and will be making a lot of outgoing calls, Vodafone cap should be OK, especially for the convenience of being able to pick up a sim at the airport.

Virgin would be a better value, and Telstra will have a better coverage than Optus or Vodafone. If you are going to a rural area, you might want to look at Telstra Next-G but you will need a Next-G phone for it (available quite cheaply as prepaid from Telstra). Call rates on Telstra are quite high.

The places I am planning to visit are probably:

Sydney
Blue Mountains
Hawkesbury River (day trip)
Palm Cove/Cairns QLD
Tasmania
Melbourne

So a fair chunk I will be urban.

If I did get the Vodaphone sim I would end up using would be TXTer Prepay or on Virgin the Message Monster.

I was confused about Virgin as it wasnt very clear on their website if they did sim only deals. Does Virgin Australia allow paypal usage to top up. Virgin USA does but Virgin UK doesnt. I am assuming my British credit/debit cards wont be accepted either.

I don't think you'll need Telstra Next-G for those places.

I'm not sure about PayPal topup, but you could just buy top up vouchers very easily at various places (newsagents, supermarkets etc, and I think some ATMs let you do it as well).

If you do get Vodafone, back in January (not sure if it's still on now, but it's worth checking) Woolworths (supermarket) and Dick Smith (a high street electronics shop, I guess you could say it's like the Dixons in the UK) had 10% off offer on Vodafone topup vouchers.

I used Optus and was very happy with it. I topped up by buying vouchers at convenience stores or whatever.

The places I am planning to visit are probably:

Sydney
Blue Mountains
Hawkesbury River (day trip)
Palm Cove/Cairns QLD
Tasmania
Melbourne

So a fair chunk I will be urban.

If I did get the Vodaphone sim I would end up using would be TXTer Prepay or on Virgin the Message Monster.

I was confused about Virgin as it wasnt very clear on their website if they did sim only deals. Does Virgin Australia allow paypal usage to top up. Virgin USA does but Virgin UK doesnt. I am assuming my British credit/debit cards wont be accepted either.

Virgin BYO mobile: https://www.virginmobile.com.au/shop/pc-134-1-byo.aspx
Rates comparison: https://www.virginmobile.com.au/rates/bean_counter_compare.html
How to top up: https://www.virginmobile.com.au/topup/

If you can get better coverage, at a cheaper price...

Edited to add I use Telstra for the superior coverage - but it's the most expensive. If you have a 2G (ie GSM) 'phone (your Sony-Ericsson) and the only thing you care about is coverage go with Telstra. The next best 2G is Optus (which Virgin uses) then a long way behind is Vodafone. However if your need is holiday/casual go the cheapest :)

Virgin BYO mobile: https://www.virginmobile.com.au/shop/pc-134-1-byo.aspx
Rates comparison: https://www.virginmobile.com.au/rates/bean_counter_compare.html
How to top up: https://www.virginmobile.com.au/topup/

If you can get better coverage, at a cheaper price...

Edited to add I use Telstra for the superior coverage - but it's the most expensive. If you have a 2G (ie GSM) 'phone (your Sony-Ericsson) and the only thing you care about is coverage go with Telstra. The next best 2G is Optus (which Virgin uses) then a long way behind is Vodafone. However if your need is holiday/casual go the cheapest :)

I recommend Vodafone (prepaid cap) above all of the other plans. The price comparison is highly misleading because Vodafone gives you $130 worth of calls for only $29 under their prepay cap. In addition, they have the lowest international rates. To the USA, I paid 29 cents per minute (billed at 14.5 cents per 30 seconds). Virgin Mobile wants 45 cents per minute for the same call.

I used Vodaphone a lot from 28 February through 13 March -- over 5 hours in total calls -- and I never used up the original $29 I paid. And coverage was excellent everywhere I went -- although I was primarily in urban areas.

I didn't like Vodafone in Oz. I had to make a few calls to the U.S., and unlike Vodafone or Orange in the U.K., I blew through $120 worth of credits in about 50 min or an hour. I then bought a calling card from Vodafone so that it wouldn't be as expensive to call, and I still blew through $45 in about 40 min. I don't know if that is how all Oz networks are, but my specific experience with Vodafone was really expensive. Call quality was OK though.

Virgin BYO mobile: https://www.virginmobile.com.au/shop/pc-134-1-byo.aspx
Rates comparison: https://www.virginmobile.com.au/rates/bean_counter_compare.html
How to top up: https://www.virginmobile.com.au/topup/

If you can get better coverage, at a cheaper price...

Edited to add I use Telstra for the superior coverage - but it's the most expensive. If you have a 2G (ie GSM) 'phone (your Sony-Ericsson) and the only thing you care about is coverage go with Telstra. The next best 2G is Optus (which Virgin uses) then a long way behind is Vodafone. However if your need is holiday/casual go the cheapest :)

Can someone clarify (as it seems to be unclear to me from the Virgin site) - do their prepaid plans/SIMs also allow texts/SMS internationally? The plan table has "in OZ" under all the SMS prices, but another page says OZ SMS is 10c while international is 20c.

I am consdiering wither the bean counter or the $29 to V.

I recommend Vodafone (prepaid cap) above all of the other plans. The price comparison is highly misleading because Vodafone gives you $130 worth of calls for only $29 under their prepay cap. In addition, they have the lowest international rates. To the USA, I paid 29 cents per minute (billed at 14.5 cents per 30 seconds). Virgin Mobile wants 45 cents per minute for the same call.

I used Vodaphone a lot from 28 February through 13 March -- over 5 hours in total calls -- and I never used up the original $29 I paid. And coverage was excellent everywhere I went -- although I was primarily in urban areas.

I paid $10 for the SIM card alone - did I get ripped off?

I then paid $29 and never went thru the $130. So it was $39 down the tubes vs. a high per minute rate. OF course, if you plan to make a bunch of calls, then vodafone rates are competitive.

I paid $10 for the SIM card alone - did I get ripped off?

I then paid $29 and never went thru the $130. So it was $39 down the tubes vs. a high per minute rate. OF course, if you plan to make a bunch of calls, then vodafone rates are competitive.

The SIM card is $9.95 and after you activate it, you automatically get an additional $9.95 credit in calling time. So you get it for free after the credit is applied.

I didn't like Vodafone in Oz. I had to make a few calls to the U.S., and unlike Vodafone or Orange in the U.K., I blew through $120 worth of credits in about 50 min or an hour. I then bought a calling card from Vodafone so that it wouldn't be as expensive to call, and I still blew through $45 in about 40 min. I don't know if that is how all Oz networks are, but my specific experience with Vodafone was really expensive. Call quality was OK though.

Hmmmm... let's see.... if you made 50 minutes of calls to the US, you would pay $14.50 on Vodafone plus a flagfall of 20 cents per call. Maybe you did not sign up for the Vodafone prepay $29 cap plan. Then all bets are off.