Virtually all phones sold in Australia (with the exception of parallel imported handsets) are operator locked. This means that you can't put a SIM card into the phone from another operator without getting the phone unlocked. Each network has different policies in regards to this, I believe Vodafone will provide you lock codes for free if you sign up on a plan with them and other networks will charge you to get these codes. If the phone is unlocked it will work fine with the possible exception of Vodafone Live! services which includes Mobile TV and Vodafone Music Store which may not work unless they have the correct Vodafone firmware. Before you buy check with the retailer if the handset is locked and what is required to unlock it.
Have you tried looking for the handset locally? Parallel Imported generally have new handsets pretty quickly and offer you a warranty with them, something you won't get with a handset purchased in Australia unless you want to send it back over there if there is a fault.
All operators SIMlock their mobile phones in Australia now.
All Vodafone handsets were "unlocked" until 2005. I bought piles of these, half as chrissie presents and half as "resellers" back in NZ.
The other gem was the $2 "woolworths sims" which when we scoured Woollies, Safeway, DSE and Big-W's and we found a few bunches of very easy "gold" numbers around which fetched some pretty nice prices on ebay.
It was the best trip ever! so much extra easy cash! why pick fruit lol.
$2 is a price I would be happy to pay for simcards. My mate was telling me that over there you get more credit on the card then what it costs, and if you buy from an asian grocery store all the annoying form filling with your details is avoided, thankfully we dont have that carryon here (yet)
Yeah, if you recharge with $29, $39 or $49 you get a hell of a lot more credit - for instance on vf aus I got over $200 credit for recharging with $49. You get free vodafone to vodafone minutes too, some free downloads off vf live and some other stuff I can't remember. However there are limitations. All credit expires in 30 days. You can't use premium text services (ie text services that you see on tv that cost 55 cents to send texts instead of the normal 20 cents etc) and you get a severely limited amount of international calls.
For this reason I choose to recharge with $50 instead of $49. I get $50 credit and full access to all services including international. Credit exipires in 60 days, and you get to choose a prepay plan too on the $50 option, I choose to have my voice calls cheaper (other options for prepay plans are cheap texts, credit expiring in 365 days rather than 60, and cheap night calls).
Vodafone are the best option over here. I even got told this in an Optus shop.
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