eng3

Upon international arrival at SYD, I will want to purchase a prepaid SIM card for my phone. What stores at the airport are easily accessible upon arrival to purchase a card?

I see I can get a card from Optus for $2/day 500mb. seems like a good deal.

jpatokal

Pretty much all the operators have shops just outside customs. The usual recommendation is Telstra if you're planning to travel even slightly off the beaten track since they have the widest network by a long shot; Optus if you want to save a few pennies and are sticking mostly to the cities; and Vodafone only if you're a masochist.

md25

Did this a few weeks ago and it worked great - as jpatokal mentioned service wasn't great in rural areas, but it met our needs. Took 5 minutes to get set up.

docbert

In addition to the kiosks for all of the major players, the Australia Post store also has starter kits for a number of the cheaper SIM providers (eg, Amaysim).

EURAUD

I would only go for a Telstra sim, their prepaid deals are very competitive these days and have great data packs you can add from the included value, but if you just want to make calls I think ALDI mobile use the telstra network and will still give you 3G data, just not 4G.

I've used Vodafone and Optus, Telstra is so far ahead on call quality and data performance, it will take years for the other two to catch up.

Guy Betsy

The cheapest and best deals for prepaid SIMs are by Lebara.

http://www.lebara.com.au/

I've used Lebara whenever I can. They're quite big in Europe and was surprised that they have branched Down Under too !

craigtravel

Thank you so much for the SIM wisdom. Very funny: "Vodafone only if you're a masochist". You confirmed Telstra for me.

lhsonic

I don't recommend Optus if you're going to be in Oz for a while. There's a lot of times you'll find yourself driving beyond the city and in many places, reception just drops out when you're off the beaten track. I read "SOS Only" and "No Service" far too many times.

Telstra is definitely more expensive at 800MB for $30/month and $15 for 1.5GB more but if you're able to get proper reception in an office building right in the CBD (whereas my Optus continually dropped my calls), I'd say it's worth it

Optus is definitely good value for the money though if you're staying mainly in the city and surrounding suburbs. $30/month for 1GB and lots and lots of calling plus $5 for 500MB packs. Their daily plans are great too, $2 for 500MB daily or as low as $1 per day on a flex plan.

jc777

Anybody knows if Optus $2/day plan is still available? And what are the T&C and bundled data / talk time included? Cannot find much information on their website.

md25

It is.

http://www.optus.com.au/shop/mobile/...ans#daily-plus

WilcoRoger

I went with the Optus daily plus and have been a very happy camper. Incredibly cheap, good coverage (in wider SYD, MEL area) 500MB is a surprisingly large chunk of daily data if used primarily for skype/facetime/email/facebook/browsing + free calls and texts.

Thanks for this thread for the tip!

mattp1987

I'm looking at Lebara for my weeklong trip. Online, the Unlimited Plan Starter Pack is on sale for $5 and includes free shipping within Australia. I can't figure out if I can pay more to have it shipped to the US or if I need to just have it shipped to my hotel for pickup. Or are there places in the airport to buy at the same price as online?

I'm planning to mostly be within the city of Brisbane and Sydney with one trip to the Blue Mountains (Katoomba area). Should it be sufficient for basic web-browsing and navigation in these areas?