Australia Smart Phone Sim Card - Just got home, advice to offer

[MicCanberra]

I am glad it worked well for you.:D

[6666oz]

MNM's you got a great deal there, thanks for feedback, your best chance of making or receiving a call outside the city's fringe's is with Telstra, the wannabe's only concentrate on the more populated areas, when I retired from telstra I had a mobile plan with vodaphone , what a mistake that was, yes they were cheaper but their service and service area was crap, my missus also had a plan with VP and on some days standing only 2 metres from each other we could not call each other, 4 bars of signal but their system just would not switch the call also had a broadband plan with VP, completely hopeless with constant dropouts, changed the sim cards back to telstra and no more problems, even took the phones with us on last cruise, worked perfect in all ports on international roaming @ $5.00 per minute might have been $7.00 per minute, but did not care as long as it worked. :)

If you are relying on your phone to be a gps you dont want dropouts. Reliability is the only factor to consider.

Edited January 8, 2016 by 6666oz

[ent704]

I am confused.....if you only want to use the Internet on your phone , do you need to get a SIM card? I don't want to make any calls......

[MicCanberra]

I am confused.....if you only want to use the Internet on your phone , do you need to get a SIM card? I don't want to make any calls......

 

Yes because you need one to be able to connect, your phone will have one already but your plan may not work overseas or it may be very expensive.

[jn2003]

I am confused.....if you only want to use the Internet on your phone , do you need to get a SIM card? I don't want to make any calls......

 

Your phone is essentially a computer. It doesn't need the sim card to work (it's needed for phone calls), however to access the internet you would be reliant on connecting to wifi. A sim card often has data allowance and it can use that to connect to the internet when you have no access to wifi.

[MMDown Under]

Just remember that tipping is not expected here as wages are much higher. Wait-staff and the like don't live on their tips. Sure, they'll accept a tip if it's offered but there's not an obligation like there is in the USA.

 

Also, sales tax (ie the GST) is included in the price. One thing that surprised me in stores in the USA was that I was charged more than the marked price in stores because tax was added at the register.

!

 

Despite all that, it is MUCH more expensive to shop in Australia than it is in the US.

 

When I travel overseas I sightsee and shop. I advise overseas visitors to forget about shopping here, unless they want to buy unique craft items from markets/craft shops, which make wonderful souvenirs.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Despite all that, it is MUCH more expensive to shop in Australia than it is in the US.

 

When I travel overseas I sightsee and shop. I advise overseas visitors to forget about shopping here, unless they want to buy unique craft items from markets/craft shops, which make wonderful souvenirs.

 

A high wage economy relies on the population spending their money locally .If everyone shopped overseas the local market would collapse and no one would have a wage coming in to buy from the States.

That's one of the reasons cruise are more expensive . The shore staff, that keep the ships cruising , have to be paid the local rates .

 

 

[GUT2407]

Just an update as were were there for a month over the holidays. We went with the Telstra card. Spent 30 AUD for what ended up being 7gb of data, 700 AUD credit on domestic calls, 200 AUD credit on intl calls and free texting..( which i did not do, my family used messenger as intl text i about 50c from the states)

 

I am glad to report that it work consistantly, it was fast and I only used less than half of the data and that was with using the phone as a GPS.

 

Very very easy and worth every cent!!

 

Glad to hear it all worked out fine.

[goodycruising]

I am confused.....if you only want to use the Internet on your phone , do you need to get a SIM card? I don't want to make any calls......

 

If you want to connect to the ship wifi then you wouldn't need a sim. If you want to use "free" wifi in ports you wouldn't either. I am wary of "free" wifi as it is not always secure, and I don't know enough about why, so I like to have my own sim for data, and then I can check emails and banking etc. There are different options for different requirements.

[nattsyster]

Maybe a stupid question, but is there any simcard/network that works in Australia, Fidji, New Caledonia and so on?

 

Lena on Voyager of the Sea, 4 of April

[SinbadThePorter]

Maybe a stupid question, but is there any simcard/network that works in Australia, Fidji, New Caledonia and so on?

 

Lena on Voyager of the Sea, 4 of April

 

I think what you are after is International Roaming. You may be better off seeing if your current mobile phone provider at home has it for the countries you are visiting.

 

Otherwise, you could buy a prepaid Telstra SIM in Australia to cover your travels.

 

https://www.telstra.com.au/international-roaming/availability-pricing/post-paid#prepaidplans

 

I'm not sure that Optus or Vodaphone cover New Caledonia.