Mobile Phone Plans, arrrghhh!

[manatra]

Another vote for switching to a nexus and buying outright.

Re plans: I switched from Exetel to Telechoice recently. Better value and coverage (Telstra rather than Optus).

[iwearmoccos]

Any reseller of a Telstra product is selling you a lesser version of the Telstra network.
There is the Telstra Wholesale network which has limited coverage, reduced data speed and is obviously sold at a cheaper price by the reseller.
Then, Boost is on the full Telstra Next G network, but misses out on the 4G/LTE side of things, so once again you’ve got reduced data speeds but a cheaper price. So you get the complete 3G network, where the Telstra Wholesale network gets limited amount of that.

[nikcee]

@iwearmoccos

Any reseller of a Telstra product is selling you a lesser version of the Telstra network.
There is the Telstra Wholesale network which has limited coverage, reduced data speed and is obviously sold at a cheaper price by the reseller.
Then, Boost is on the full Telstra Next G network, but misses out on the 4G/LTE side of things, so once again you’ve got reduced data speeds but a cheaper price. So you get the complete 3G network, where the Telstra Wholesale network gets limited amount of that.

knowledge bomb.

would you expect that to be the case for other major providers? (my guess is yes, based on my experience in other industries that have white-labelling/reselling).

[iwearmoccos]

@nikcee

knowledge bomb.

would you expect that to be the case for other major providers? (my guess is yes, based on my experience in other industries that have white-labelling/reselling).

I’ve read that it is only reduced by a small percentage in terms of network coverage, but add that together with reduced data speed and you end up on a network that is comparable to when NextG was first introduced.

I assume other companies do the same, though I don’t have any specifics.

[manatra]

Yep, Telechoice advertise their coverage as 99.7% of Telstra’s 3G network. No 4G LTE. I’ve got a Nexus 4 (no 4G) so it was fine for me. Still finding the coverage noticeably better than Optus/Exetel.

[heavymetal]

I’d been with tpg for a couple years on a great 1.5gb (with free social networking) for $15 cos I bundled with home Internet. They recently had all their rates put up by Optus so they changed my plan to 1gb with no social and upped the price a bit. I tend to use a lot of data, so I switched to an optus plan through my work. 2gb and unlimited everything else for $35 or something. Still waiting for new sim cos get sent to work and I’m not there. So there’s work plans if you can get them.

And I vouch for the nexus 5. Got one after I took my iPhone for a swim and haven’t looked back. Great phone for half the price of the cheapest apple… No brainer.

[boyracer]

@spirito

If some of you have home internet plans then some company’s offer additional mobile subscriptions that are cheap and part of a package. I own my phone iPhone (was bought used & was perfect) and my mobile plan is $9 per month as part of my connection with home phone & internet. All this is through Exetel (which goes through Optus).

If this route works for you then checkout all the plans to see which offer additional mobile coverage. Read all the fine print, compare all the packages and see what works for you

^^^ what he said.
I have internode home internet and they chuck in a bomb of calls/data for another 10 dorrah. Even had six months FREE for signing up! Assuming you have a handset and internode access. They use optus network.