Thread: mobile phone

You can get a cheap pre-pay mobile phone from the supermarket over here. That's one where you buy a certain amount of phone call credit up front and then top up as needed. The 2 major supermarket chains (Coles and Woolworths/Safeway) both have them.

If all you want is a basic phone for temporary use then pick one up from ebay or a secondhand shop. The cheapest pre-paid service I know of (and use) is iSim which you can connect with online only. It uses the Optus network and has the benifits of no flagfall and a fixed call rate of only 39c/minute charged by the second, 15c sms. Check them out on www.isim.com.au

What Mirboo said, John, new prepaid mobile phones run from about $60 for a basic Nokia with $10 credit.


Cheers...................Sean

Jow

You can just bring your own, as we have the same system as the Poms. Just get a SIM when you're here.

Originally Posted by Bodgy

Jow

You can just bring your own, as we have the same system as the Poms. Just get a SIM when you're here.

Got a new Sim this year for my pommy phone but got charged a roaming charge (£1.50) per call to each end of the line when I used in Europe(mainland)

$4 per call chargeto each!!!!!!!!1:eek:

But perhaps an Oz sim might be OK?

John, if you bring your own phone and get a prepaid Sim to put in it you'll be fine WRT the roaming charge. It's the Sim that's recognised by the system and charged, not the phone. As far as who has the best pre-paid deals goes, I wouldn't have a clue. But it seems like every man and his dog runs mobile phone packages nowadays. Hang around a landline around dinner time when you get here, you're bound to gert a call from an Indian call centre offering you a great deal!

Mick

Originally Posted by journeyman Mick

Hang around a landline around dinner time when you get here, you're bound to gert a call from an Indian call centre offering you a great deal!

Mick

My bestest Indian voice on, Uggh!!, no not that one, the other one.

Arrrhh good evening Mr Mick, may I take a moment of your time to save you some money?
We are here to help you save money on your phone bills.
How much do you spend at the moment?
Nothing?
We can do better than that!! We can cut that by half.....

Al

We all said that moderating duties would get to Al eventually. Go polish yer foilie ya silly git

Richard

My lot buy prepaid sim cards in UK when they go, costs next to nothing and work well. The same can happen this end, much, much cheaper than the pommy ones and work fine. Mainly use them for SMS very cheap way to keep in contact with home and each other.

Cheers - Neil

Jow

As said, an Oz SIM will be fine.

Also when you get here buy a prepaid service fom an internet telephony, so you can call home.

So cheap. When Thuggo was playing Rugby in UK and Idiot Child was on exchange in Germany, Her Indoors spent in excess of $200 a month on calls. Went to the VOIP service, $40 lasted 4 months. Quote "You have 487654945982674593 minutes left on your card"

Thanks for the leads, we will bring our own mobile then and get a sim.
Not alot of experience with mobiles.
We started with £10 credit ($25) 6 years ago and honest we still have some left!!!!!. We only switch it on every few months and dial our house number to keep the sim going, and thats all about I know what to do with it.

Originally Posted by jow104

We started with £10 credit ($25) 6 years ago and honest we still have some left!!!!!.

Doesn't work like that here, the credits expire after a prescribed period, three or six months I think.
Best get a $10.00 card and a top up as required, available from any servo, supermarket, newsagent, post office etc etc etc.
You hand over your biccies and the receipt has a code, you dial the recharge number on your phone and key in the receipt number, boom boom, back in credit.

Theres a public phone box 100 yards from the house (unless its on Telstras hit list) And the General Store has an internet cafe setup.

There is an old phone line into the house dunno what the cost of connecting it is.

But you'd be stuck with dialup if you want internet as Broadband & Isdn are not available there (except by 2 way satellite)