Mobile Data whilst in Australia

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doctormaxim

100 posts

Master Geek

#806106 26-Apr-2013 20:43

KevinL: For what it's worth, I just got back from Melbourne - the Optus at the airport would only sell the $2 days SIM card with a minimum 30 day topup (so $60), or Prepaid Social ($50). Went for the Prepaid Social option - the rep swapped out bundled international calling/texting for an extra GB of data, which gave me a bit over 4GB in total.

Would have preferred to just pay for 6 days worth of $2 days, but the rep was convinced that wasn't an option (and I couldn't be bothered investigating further).

That also happened to me in the same store. I let it slide as I just got off my flight and had other things to get organised but contacted Optus later on and confirmed my suspicions were correct. However, I would have to go back to the store I purchased it from to get a refund. I wasn't left very impressed by the whole thing. As for coverage, I had no issues at all whilst in Melbourne and travelling the Great Ocean Road.

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sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#806216 27-Apr-2013 07:40

blakamin: I find amaysim amazing, and so do quite a few other GZ's that travel. At least you know what you're getting!

I've used Amaysim for my last 6 or 7 trips in the last year but all had only been 2 or 3 day trips until my week there last month for the F1. I still had data left on my $10 / 1GB plan from February but noticed my daily usage was sky high. I was aware they had 1MB data session rounding but didn't realise the impact this really had in the real world.

End of the story is that on one particular day I chewed through just over 400MB of data when my actual usage would have been under 100MB. With my phone left as usual with 2 x ActiceSync accounts and usual background apps running I was seeing 1MB charges appear on my usage every few minutes.

It seems PDP contexts were essentially rated every couple of mins meaning all the background polling instantly became a 1MB charge. Compare that to NZ where Vodafone rate data sessions per 10kb or once every ~30 mins or so if your PDP context remains up.

ashnizzle

196 posts

Master Geek

#806218 27-Apr-2013 07:48

yeh id say dont get the simcard from the optus store in Melbourne airport. i got told the same price which was a joke. went to a different optus store and got the $2 a day offer with a lesser top up.

Elpie

1304 posts

Uber Geek

#806361 27-Apr-2013 14:29

It's worth noting that if you travel frequently you can change your prepay plan online to keep it live till you need it again, then change back to the $2 days if you want. I switch between the plan I need at any given time/trip and the long expiry date plan, which keeps the phone number active for half a year. This can be very useful if you want people to know your number when in Australia.

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