Need Some SIM advice from an Australian
 

I will be traveling to Oz soon and want to get a SIM card for my unlocked Nokia phone so I can use it while I'm down under.

What would you recommend? Prepaid is the best so I can make some calls and -- possibly surf the web and/or make a couple VOIP calls.

THANKS!

Re: Need Some SIM advice from an Australian
 

Our major vendors are; Optus, Virgin, Three, Vodaphone, and Telstra.

Stay away from Telstra, $$$. Vodaphone is also costly but not as bad.

I'd go between Optus and Virgin, they have good reliability.

Re: Need Some SIM advice from an Australian
 

Havent been home in a while (to bloody long, but thats another story) but my little brother says the main cell providers are telstra, optus, 3, vodafone, virgin.

He says if you are in a decently built up area - 3 is probably the best - but you may run into the 3 sim issue with the n900

Re: Need Some SIM advice from an Australian
 

Apparently 3 in Australia uses 3G 2100, sharing the NextG Network with Telstra.

And.. quote wiki "In areas not covered by 3's 3G network, customers roam on Telstra's GSM/GPRS/EDGE or UMTS networks."

Edit: Apparently 3G won't work on Telstra, which would include Three i'm guessing

Quote nokia forums "If your network is Telstra then the N900 will not "do" 3G for you since Telstra chose to use the 850 MHz band commonly used in the US. Most networks in Oz use 2100 and 900 MHz like the rest of the world." So.. choose Optus / Virgin.

Re: Need Some SIM advice from an Australian
 

Pick up a few $2 virgin pre paid sims and activate them as wireless broadband. This will give u a minimum of 300mb per sim and there are 2 sims in the $2 packet. So it equates to $3.33/GB. They also work for calls and sms. They can be recharged same as normal prepaid sims and perfect for the n900 because they use optus's network which is 2100mhz and 900mhz.

There is a few threads on whirlpool about them.

3 is only good in built up areas but charge ridiculous amounts for data and calls when you go outside their own towers.

Re: Need Some SIM advice from an Australian
 

3 now belongs to Vodafone.
Virgin is part of Optus
Telstra offers the best and widest coverage but is horrendously expensive for calls and data.

Optus and Vodafone have a good non-contract monthly call data plans offering unlimited local calls and SMS messages and 2Gb or 3Gb of data for about $110 (60 pounds) per month.
They obviously have cheaper calls too.