best provider for Australia
 

As I am tired of bankrupt prepaid international companies (I have seven dead sims) I have been thinking of getting a card for the country I travel to the most, Australia. That would make the choice Optus Vodafone or Telstra or one of the virtuals, Trouble is sorting through the chaff to get at the wheat. Which of the Aussie networks will give me the most time without loosing the number? I will be using the number for a couple of weeks twice a year and I am not sure what the cheapest way to keep my presence up.

Any ideas?

Regarding coverage i would concider to buy a Telsta NextG kit. The NextG coverage (UMTS on 850MHz) is way beyond all other networks... I dont know how long these cards are valid though.

Doesn't 3 roam on Telstra (at least when there is no 3 coverage) now?

Stu thanks for the link to whirlpool forums, some good food for thought in there.

Looking at things from the occassional use perspective. iSIM looked good but they will not be in business after 15JULY10 see,
welcome to iSIM

So I am thinking 7 eleven, any thoughts? Virgin is crazy expensive, might as well go with Vodafone.

yes, but you can not use your data packs on roaming and voice calls are charged at a higher rate...

Telstra are a complete rip off. No one uses them unless they are forced to. If you need data outside of the cities then Telstra is a better option for coverage, although don't overlook Optus and ISPs that re-sell their data networks over the Optus 3G network. Optus 3G or Vodafone 3G coverage may be sufficient depending on how 'remote' you intend to go.

If you just need voice outside of the cities, forget Telstra, just get a Three SIM, and switch off data when you leave the cities and just use voice for the same price. Roaming on Telstra from Three outside of the cities is 50c / MB so you can still check email or weather or whatever if you need to.

If you don't travel outside of the cities, forget Telstra, go Three or Vodafone.

For super cheap voice, look at companies like Pennytel who give free access to their VoIP voice gateway using a re-sold Optus SIM, and can provide an ok data pack on that although Optus is notoriously over-subscribed so the least reliable for data speeds.

I use Three as I rarely leave the cities and just switch off data when I do except for occasional use, and get 2GB / month in the cities, and it's fine for me.

Yes, Whirlpool is your forum of choice for all things data and voice in Australia.

Lebara?
 

I have had good luck with Lebara in Europe, and they seem to have a good offer in Australia. The Lebara website is at Lebara Mobile - low cost international phone calls from your mobile.

Looks like:

*Cheapest SIM cost is $10 with $10 credit - so, essentially SIM card is free.

*International SMS is 15 cents.

*All calls have a 25 cent "flag tariff", then 5 cents per minute to US, 5 cents to UK landline (19 cents mobile), 15 cents Australian landline and mobile, first 10 minutes Lebara to Lebara free plus flagfall.

*"GPRS" (unclear if there is 3G) is 10 cents per MB.

Anyone out there think that any of the other companies have a better offer? If so, how is it better?