Current (Australian) Mobile Network

[VodaMatt]

Hi Guys,

Just out of interest I was wondering who in Australia uses what network? I'm aware there are more than 4 providers in Australia, however there are only 4 individual networks in the country (Three actually use Telstra's 2G network but have their own 3G network). If you're unsure who you're using here's a quick guide on how to find out from your SIM.

Telstra SIM's have a 9 digit number followed by a letter.
Optus SIM's usually have Optus written on them and the SIM numbers start with 896102.
Vodafone SIM's have the full 15 digit SIM number on them starting with 896103.I put it here because there's no Australia (or Pacific) sub-board under the Mobile Networks, and Australia is NOT part of Asia LOL.

[brad]

It is a cross between Europe and Asia, they call it Australasia....

Anyway, I have SIMs from all the networks (obviously), but Vodafone is by FAR my favorite.

[problematic]

From what I know, Australia is a part of ASEAN, so it's considered an Asian country.

ASEAN = association of south east asian nations.

:D

[carcomptoy]

It is still its own continent, although it's obviously heavily involved with its Asian neighbors.

In any case, why is Vodafone your favorite, brad?

[VodaMatt]

Ignoring Geographical location Australia's heritage is mostly European so from a people point of view we should be a European nation..... That is if you ignore the fact that currently our population is like 50% Asian (according to the last census.... I think....LOL)

ANYWAY....

[brad]

@carcomptoy - The best general coverage of the networks (except for 3G, which Telstra has the best of), and any time I have dealt with customer service in a store or over the phone they have been extremely helpful and friendly.

[Diji1]

Re: Australasia discussion... ASEAN is just an organisation that countries in the region belong to, Australia is in the Asian region but we have largely European & Western values with a bent very much towards cultural assimilation from all parts of the world, unlike most (all?) other countries in the region which have distinctly and fundamentall different cultures.

Australia was an extremely racist and isolationist country until 40 or so years ago, but since then we've made more or less concerted efforts to integrate into the region by way of trade, cultural exchange (tourism, education) and trying to help out now and then (provided that's OK with the US & UK of course).

I was with Three, but then I had a ridiculous problem (see my thread elsewhere in this forum) and generally found their helpdesk to be very bad - clueless staff who disbelieve and do jacl about problems, so I recently changed to Telstra. The coverage is superb although I haven't yet got my 3G services working yet (not Telstra's fault whatsoever).

I've been with Vodaphone ages ago and recall good helpdesk & no dropouts to speak of but 3G wasn't around then.

[lloydo]

I prefer Telstra's network (3.5G) and service but Three's pricing is much better!

[Diji1]

I prefer Telstra's network (3.5G) and service but Three's pricing is much better!

Much better indeed... 3 are great on price.

eg. I was paying $29 per month for $29 of call @ $0.30 (can't recall if there was flagfall), SMS at 15c & got 120 mins of free calls if it was 3 mobile to 3 mobile.

Telstra I'm paying $40 for calls @ $0.37, 0.25 for SMS, though I do get 50 SMS for free which is one of 6 or 7 options that one can pick.

The real price difference (that makes 3 very attractive) is 3G services price:

eg. GPRS internet:

3 = $40 for 500MB / month + the "Mega Bundle" services pack.

Telstra = $30 for 40MB /month (at approximately 5x the speed & with much better coverage). Enough for a fair bit of web browsing but forget Orb, bittorrent, audio downloads etc. which all was possible with 3.

I'm actually considering changing from telstra to either vodaphone or optus based on cost.