Hello Australian chums - and of course, congratulations on your win today at Lords.

At the end of the month me and the family are travelling to the West coast for 3 weeks to see family. Mainly spending out time in Broome, but we’ve got a 4x4 some small (carefully prepared, cautious) trips into more rural areas.

Our cellular UK provider’s rates for using phones is ruinously expensive, so I’m looking for advice on

  1. Which cellular provider you would recommend to get a - presumably pre-paid SIM while we are out there. Main criteria are

  2. Probably want about 4-8Gigs data, mainly calls within Australia with probably about 3 hours of calling back to the UK during this period on one phone.

  3. Anyone know whether it is possible to get the SIMs before we travel in the UK? Or best to get them in Oz? and if the latter - best place to get them?

Sorry for the shopping list of questions. Any advice gratefully received.

  •  abhibeckert   ( @abhibeckert@beehaw.org ) 
    1•1 year ago

    Which cellular provider you would recommend

    Telstra. They are one of the best cell providers in the world in terms of the level of service provided.

    Unfortunately they make up for that by being very expensive… but you’re going to spend so much time without access to wifi and fast/reliable service is worth paying for. You will get a fast connection with Telstra in places where other networks will be slow or not even work at all.

    That’s especially true for travelling to places like Broome. Telstra generally has good reception everywhere in Australia except for the Northern Territory (nobody has good service there… I would consider buying a satellite distress beacon if you’re driving a 4WD in the Northern Territory, where simply breaking down in your car could become a life threatening situation).

    Probably want about 4-8Gigs data

    Telstra’s base rate is 15GB for $35 (note they often have specials where you get more data… but they very rarely have a special that reduces the price), and generally the data will expire after 4 weeks.

    Telstra has a bunch of plans… the cheapest ones expire after just 7 days. Make sure you buy service with a 28 day/4 week expiry!

    calls within Australia

    Calls within Australia will be unlimited.

    probably about 3 hours of calling back to the UK

    You should get five hours of “Zone 1” international calling on the $35 sim… and if you can use Facebook/Skype/Facetime/Signal/etc those will obviously be “free” (as in, use your data instead). The UK is a “Zone 1” country.

    Anyone know whether it is possible to get the SIMs before we travel in the UK?

    For about $2 you can buy a Telstra sim card (just a sim card, no data) from grocery stores, post offices, etc. Depending what airport you land in most likely you’ll be able to buy one from a store in the airport, and they likely also sell prepaid service as well.

    There will almost certainly be free wifi at the airport (and in many other places around the city) if you do need to look things up before you get a sim card.

    Electronic sims aren’t really a thing in Australia - at least for phones anyway. They are commonly used for tablets/watches/etc.

      •  abhibeckert   ( @abhibeckert@beehaw.org ) 
        2•1 year ago

        No worries - I figured it was already too late but since it’s one of the top comments here, I wanted to reply. Also lots of other people will have the same question as you and maybe find my answer. :-)

        For anyone else reading this… Even though Boost uses the Telstra network, their customers can’t connect to the entire network and it’s particularly noticeable once you leave the south east coast of Australia (also, in major cities Telstra provides faster service than Boost).

        Here’s a 2023 coverage map comparing the two (the purple sections are up to 6Gbps coverage, won’t get that anywhere on Boost):

        I’m glad you had a satellite beacon. They’ve saved a friend of mine once, hit the button and a helicopter was hovering above us 45 minutes later (it would have been risky to land where we were - they used a UHF to tell us where they were going to land). One of those things you’ll hopefully never use but be glad you’ll have one if you do need it.

  •  tuff_wizard   ( @tuff_wizard@aussie.zone ) English
    1•1 year ago

    If you’re going anywhere rural you have to use Telstra or their budget subsiday Boost. They have the biggest network and best coverage outside the populated areas. That said no one covers the actual outback.

    Boost Prepaid 28day plans the lowest tier here has 45GB of data and unlimited calls to the United Kingdom. They have list of retailers where you can buy in store, or you can order them online. I guess you could order them to the UK but it’ll sting if they don’t arrive before you leave. I usually just get one sim and let my girlfriend hotspot when were away.

    Hopefully that helps!