Travel Technology - which 3g prepaid sim cards? UK,AU,

I just need the sim card and from what I see, I think for the UK vodafone has the best option, correct?
What about in Australia? I need one which can get me on the Great barrier reef. I can't remember if it was optus or telestra that worked out there. What one would be the best in SYD?

I just need the sim card and from what I see, I think for the UK vodafone has the best option, correct?
What about in Australia? I need one which can get me on the Great barrier reef. I can't remember if it was optus or telestra that worked out there. What one would be the best in SYD?

For the UK I like Orange, as I call back to the US alot and its like 5 or 6p/min

For Australia, the best coverage is Telstra Next G (http://www.telstra.com.au/nextg/index.html) - however it is 850 MHz HSDPA and very few handsets are equipped for this. Second best is Optus 900 MHz HSDPA.

GSM coverage in Australia is not terribly good, and the Barrier Reef has very little GSM coverage - so unless your current handset works on either 850 MHz or 900 MHz HSDPA you may be out of luck

If you want coverage on the Barrier Reef, buy yourself a prepaid Samsung A411 (http://phones.shop.ebay.com.au/items/_W0QQNetworkLock518501dZNextG8ae18a7aQQ_dmptZAUQ5f MobileQ5fPhones?_nkw=a411&_sacat=14409&_fromfsb=&_trksid=m270.l1313&_odkw=&_osacat=14409) or A412. I have a 411 and its coverage is very very good, and it also works on the regular GSM frequencies.

Other 850 MHz devices include the Nokia 6120, N95, and E51. If you want to go Optus, which is nearly as good, the Nokia 6121 is 900 MHz HSDPA capable.

My UK prepaid card is Virgin and it works very well both for price and coverage.

For Australia, the best coverage is Telstra Next G (http://www.telstra.com.au/nextg/index.html) - however it is 850 MHz HSDPA and very few handsets are equipped for this. Second best is Optus 900 MHz HSDPA.

GSM coverage in Australia is not terribly good, and the Barrier Reef has very little GSM coverage - so unless your current handset works on either 850 MHz or 900 MHz HSDPA you may be out of luck

If you want coverage on the Barrier Reef, buy yourself a prepaid Samsung A411 (http://phones.shop.ebay.com.au/items/_W0QQNetworkLock518501dZNextG8ae18a7aQQ_dmptZAUQ5f MobileQ5fPhones?_nkw=a411&_sacat=14409&_fromfsb=&_trksid=m270.l1313&_odkw=&_osacat=14409) or A412. I have a 411 and its coverage is very very good, and it also works on the regular GSM frequencies.

Other 850 MHz devices include the Nokia 6120, N95, and E51. If you want to go Optus, which is nearly as good, the Nokia 6121 is 900 MHz HSDPA capable.

My UK prepaid card is Virgin and it works very well both for price and coverage.

Well my blackberry worked out there (GBR). It's a quad band, but I can't remember which service it was.

I just need the sim card and from what I see, I think for the UK vodafone has the best option, correct?
What about in Australia? I need one which can get me on the Great barrier reef. I can't remember if it was optus or telestra that worked out there. What one would be the best in SYD?

If you want European data roaming on your UK 3G SIM, then T-Mobile is the cheapest at £1.50/MB. I find T-Mobile generally quite reliable and have a better coverage than Three UK. However, I found some black spots where signals don't work so well, whereas O2 so far has worked everywhere I've been (but Vodafone's signal was also weak - I noticed this when my Australian phone was roaming on Vodafone).

For Australia, I'd suggest Telstra Next-G for outside cities because it generally has the best coverage. However Telstra Next-G is generally more expensive than the rest.

For most of SYD, one from Three works OK. I have one of those on contract. I used to be with Telstra Next-G but ditched it for Three.

Blackberry emails tend to work even if the connection is a bit flaky. The same can't be said for surfing on 3G though - if the connection is flaky, it either slows right down or doesn't work properly. When you had your Blackberry in Australia, you might have been on various networks if you were roaming - they tend to, well, roam around different networks a bit, while roaming.