Australian mobile network options

[abortrephrase]

It's been a while since I last did the math on mobile phone plans, so I just spent way too much of my time going over it all again.

I ignored VHA in this, as their network is currently pretty useless. They have some offers which look attractive on the surface, but there's not much point having an "unlimited" plan if you can't use it.

Went with two (approximate) price-points: $60/month and $100/month, looking at Telstra caps, Telstra pre-paid, Optus caps, and Virgin caps. Virgin runs on the Optus network. There are a bunch of smaller VMNOs running on Optus, but life is too short to dig them all up.

For each I went with the Samsung Galaxy S, as that's a very popular Android phone right now and the sort of device I'd be looking at if I were buying at the moment. The S II will probably attract a bit of a premium when it comes out, but that isn't expected until June at the earliest.

For the Telstra pre-paid, I assumed buying the phone outright from Mobicity. This is the i9000M (the NextG version of the i9000) for $649, amortised over 24 months.

So, the headline numbers, monthly:

	Cost	Minutes	$/min
Telstra 59	$65	611	$0.11
Telstra Pre 40	$67	573	$0.12
Virgin 59	$59	454	$0.13
Optus 59	$59	786	$0.08
Telstra 99	$99	1333	$0.07
Telstra Pre 60	$87	1056	$0.08
Virgin Topless	$89	0	$0
Optus Timeless 99	$99	0	$0

It is of course not quite so simple. Some important notes:

• None of these take flagfalls into account
• Not taking account of any bonus "limited-time offers"
• Voicemail access on all but the last two also costs money
• The Telstra post-paid plans and the last two include unlimited domestic text messages
• The Telstra pre-paid plans allow you to use the "real" balance (as opposed to the "cap" balance) for international calls
• The Optus and Virgin plans do not allow you to make international calls with the call credit, you pay extra for those
• All these plans except the Telstra pre-paids include over a gigabyte of data. The Telstra pre-paids include less data, but it's easy to top that up using your "real" pre-paid balance (rather than the "call credit" balance).
• The pre-paids do have the advantage of owning the phone outright and not having any contract. Also no network locks, so you can swap the SIM out any time
• The post-paid plans are all 24-month contracts

My conclusions, assuming you don't have a network preference:

1. For anything up to ~700 minutes a month, if you don't make (m)any international calls the Optus $59 plan is the best value
2. Between ~700 and ~1300 minutes per month, the Telstra $99 post-paid is the best bet, unless you're using the cheesy free-bonus-calls deals Optus and Virgin offer. My experience has been that I never use them, and my best guess is that this is true for a lot of people -- otherwise they wouldn't be offered!
3. Over 1300 minutes per month the Virgin "Topless" is the way to go. It looks to be identical to the Optus "Timeless", but they have a $10/month discount for online orders.

All that said, my money will keep going to Telstra. Even where it's not the best-value option it's still pretty close, and the network coverage is much better even in the city. If you're going into regional areas much then Telstra is the no-brain choice. (Edit: corrected the point re: Telstra plans and international calls.)

Comments

How these numbers are calculated

[abortrephrase]

Quick explanatory notes:

Most mobile plans in Australia are "cap plans". You pay $x, they give you $y of "call credit" to be used for a variety of things. Those things vary between operators -- Optus and Virgin only let you use it for domestic calls and text messages, Telstra lets you use it for international calls too.

So, to make the plans comparable (assuming what you care about most is voice calls), we take three values from the plan details: how much it costs per month, how much call credit you get, and what they charge per minute for calls.

For the Telstra $59 plan, that's $65 a month ($59 for the service, $6 as a handset repayment), $550 of credit, and calls cost $0.90c/minute.

So. For $65/month what you get is 550/0.9=611 minutes. Which means those calls cost $0.106 per minute, or rounded up, 11c/minute.

That's not quite right though, as it doesn't take flagfalls into account. And it assumes you use all of those minutes. If you don't, the effective price per minute goes up.

So it's not perfect, but it provides a simple metric to compare plans across operators. The whole system is set up to obfuscate as much as possible.

(I'm using Telstra pre-paid, because when I bought my handset the Telstra post-paid plans were still poor value. When upgrade time comes, I'll probably go for a Telstra post-paid contract.)

Re: How these numbers are calculated

[jeshyr]

Thanks for handy dandy math done for me! I'll memory this to use when I get my new phone - I am curious about this though:

All these plans except the Telstra pre-paids include over a gigabyte of data. The Telstra pre-paids include less data, but it's easy to top that up using your "real" pre-paid balance (rather than the "call credit" balance).

I didn't realise you could top up the data section separately from the voice section, is that what you mean and how does one go about it??

Re: How these numbers are calculated

[ideological_cuddle]

This applies only to Telstra pre-paid. There may be similar options for other plans/operators, but that's the one I'm most familiar with.

They have what they call Browse Plus Packs. For example, $20 gets you 700MB to use over 30 days.

The $40 "Pre Paid Cap+" recharge gives you $510 of call credit plus 800MB of data, both expiring in 30 days. So if you're coming close to the 800MB but still have plenty of credit left you can use some of the credit (from the money you put in, not the "call value credit") to buy a browse plus pack and get more data.

You can buy plus packs (there are some other types too) a couple of ways. You can do it online using the account management website, you can do it by sending the right code to the right SMS number, or you can dial #100# and use the menu to do it.

Re: How these numbers are calculated

[jeshyr]

Coolness, thanks. I found the website byzantine and confusing!!

Re: How these numbers are calculated

[ideological_cuddle]

Yeah, most of them are pretty awful. I've been using Telstra pre-paid long enough that I'm used to the website.

On top of the dire usability there's a crazy amount of complexity and obfuscation on almost all the operator plans. There was a mob a while back doing a nice simple "pay $x for y minutes" deal (reselling Optus, I think) but I can't find them now.