OT: Mobile phone plans

[David L. Jones]

OT, but I know some people know a lot about this stuff on here goes...

I've been with Vodaphone pre-paid for a long time now, but the
coverage sucks, so I (and family members) am looking to switch.
e.g recent trip from Perth to Broome, got no coverage anywhere in
between, but everyone else in the towns had coverage.
Blue Mountains in Sydney when I'm up there canyoning or whatever -
nothing on Vodaphone, but friends with Telstra get coverage
everywhere.

So the new plan:
- Has got to be a long term pre-paid, I hate plans. I use maybe $20/
year if I'm lucky. 12 month pre-paid highly preferable.
- Got to be able to keep my number.
- Got to use the Telstra service for the coverage. Doesn't have to be
an actual plan with Telstra.
- Got to have auto-top up, don't want to run out when I need it.

Rather than sift though all the marketing crap out there, I figured
someone might have some pointers?

Thanks.
Dave.

 

[Alan Rutlidge]

"David L. Jones" <altzone@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1dd204b1-46a2-4936-8f6a-435b7ed16b91@r35g2000prm.googlegroups.com...

OT, but I know some people know a lot about this stuff on here goes...

I've been with Vodaphone pre-paid for a long time now, but the
coverage sucks, so I (and family members) am looking to switch.
e.g recent trip from Perth to Broome, got no coverage anywhere in
between, but everyone else in the towns had coverage.
Blue Mountains in Sydney when I'm up there canyoning or whatever -
nothing on Vodaphone, but friends with Telstra get coverage
everywhere.

So the new plan:
- Has got to be a long term pre-paid, I hate plans. I use maybe $20/
year if I'm lucky. 12 month pre-paid highly preferable.
- Got to be able to keep my number.
- Got to use the Telstra service for the coverage. Doesn't have to be
an actual plan with Telstra.
- Got to have auto-top up, don't want to run out when I need it.

Rather than sift though all the marketing crap out there, I figured
someone might have some pointers?

Thanks.
Dave.

It probably doesn't matter too much who the service provider is, just who's
network they use to provide it.
Any providers using the Big T's network should provide good coverage. The
next question should be 3G or GSM or both?
Ask the relevant questions before signing up and demand to see a coverage
map. That way if you get lied to you've got justification for backing out
of the contract.

Cheers,
Alan

 

[qmod]

David L. Jones wrote:

OT, but I know some people know a lot about this stuff on here goes...

I've been with Vodaphone pre-paid for a long time now, but the
coverage sucks, so I (and family members) am looking to switch.
e.g recent trip from Perth to Broome, got no coverage anywhere in
between, but everyone else in the towns had coverage.
Blue Mountains in Sydney when I'm up there canyoning or whatever -
nothing on Vodaphone, but friends with Telstra get coverage
everywhere.

So the new plan:
- Has got to be a long term pre-paid, I hate plans. I use maybe $20/
year if I'm lucky. 12 month pre-paid highly preferable.
- Got to be able to keep my number.
- Got to use the Telstra service for the coverage. Doesn't have to be
an actual plan with Telstra.
- Got to have auto-top up, don't want to run out when I need it.

Rather than sift though all the marketing crap out there, I figured
someone might have some pointers?

Thanks.
Dave.
About the only one I know of that has those features is "savvytel"

they claim that it never runs out as long as you have some credit in the
account. However it not much good for you as they use Vodaphone network.

--
Laurie.
Registered Linux user # 468070

 

[Peter Parker]

"David L. Jones" <altzone@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1dd204b1-46a2-4936-8f6a-435b7ed16b91@r35g2000prm.googlegroups.com...

So the new plan:
- Has got to be a long term pre-paid, I hate plans. I use maybe $20/
year if I'm lucky. 12 month pre-paid highly preferable.
- Got to be able to keep my number.
- Got to use the Telstra service for the coverage. Doesn't have to be
an actual plan with Telstra.
- Got to have auto-top up, don't want to run out when I need it.

I have those exact same requirements. Voda's patchy even in the outer
suburbs
of Melbourne (Chelsea) so a change would be great for me.

Let us know how you go Dave.

 

[David L. Jones]

On Sep 1, 5:04 pm, "Alan Rutlidge"
<don't_spam_me_rutli...@iinet.net.au> wrote:

"David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote in messagenews:1dd204b1-46a2-4936-8f6a-435b7ed16b91@r35g2000prm.googlegroups.com...



OT, but I know some people know a lot about this stuff on here goes...

I've been with Vodaphone pre-paid for a long time now, but the
coverage sucks, so I (and family members) am looking to switch.
e.g recent trip from Perth to Broome, got no coverage anywhere in
between, but everyone else in the towns had coverage.
Blue Mountains in Sydney when I'm up there canyoning or whatever -
nothing on Vodaphone, but friends with Telstra get coverage
everywhere.

So the new plan:
- Has got to be a long term pre-paid, I hate plans. I use maybe $20/
year if I'm lucky. 12 month pre-paid highly preferable.
- Got to be able to keep my number.
- Got to use the Telstra service for the coverage. Doesn't have to be
an actual plan with Telstra.
- Got to have auto-top up, don't want to run out when I need it.

Rather than sift though all the marketing crap out there, I figured
someone might have some pointers?

Thanks.
Dave.

It probably doesn't matter too much who the service provider is, just who's
network they use to provide it.

Yep, that's the idea. I don't care who I deal with as long as they use
the Telstra network.

Any providers out there with long period no-frills pre-paid plans that
use Telstra?

Any providers using the Big T's network should provide good coverage.

I presume that all service providers using the Telstra network would
have identical coverage everywhere in Oz?

The next question should be 3G or GSM or both?

Considering that we only have GSM phones to make old fashioned phone
calls and text, no need for 3G.

Thanks
Dave.