As a technology website, we’re often about which mobile phone plan is the best. There are certainly many choices, along with a myriad of rates, variables, extras and conditions. To make the choosing easier, we’ve gone through the offers and summarised our top picks. Be sure to bookmark this page as we’ll be revisiting it regularly with the best Australian deals.
Who should I go with?
This guide covers SIM-only plans, which means you need to bring your own handset. However, if you do the sums, you will probably find that buying a handset outright and going on one of these plans is a much better deal than paying, say, $60 to $100 a month.
If you have an existing mobile number, you will be given a choice to keep your current number when you activate the new plan.
In the table below we’ve summarised what we consider the best current deals. However, if you just need a connection for 1 month or less, check out the weekly deals at Coles or Woolworths. For a one-off sale for between $10-$20, you will get lots of data.
So how much data will you need? The best advice is to check your plan’s data consumption to see what you have been using. As a rough example, if you are not watching lots of video away from a connected WiFi network, a 100GB per year plan, which is 8GB a month, should be more than enough.
| Company | Unlimited Nat calls & text | Data included | Period | International | Cost | Cost/mth | Cost/GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Optus | Yes | 100GB/yr | 12 mths | None | $150 | $12.50 | $1.50 |
| Woolworths (Telstra) | Yes | 100GB/yr | 12 mths | None | $150 | $12.50 | $1.50 |
| Kogan (Vodafone) | Yes | 180GB/yr | 12 mths | None | $180 | $14.80 | $1 |
| Vodafone | Yes | 240GB/yr | 12mths | 50 texts | $200 | $16.66 | $0.83 |
| ALDI (Telstra) | $5 credit | 0GB | 1 mth | None | $5 | $5 | NA |
| Amaysim (Optus) | Yes | 10GB | 1mth | 42 countries | $10 | $10 | $1 |
Note: This list is not influenced by any commercial partnerships so what you see is what we think are the best deals. All details are correct at time of publishing, however, some plans may have expired and not be available when you sign up. Last update: March 2021
Before you buy
Here’s our handy list of ‘phone plan’ related terms that you should know when considering a plan:
- BYOD/SIM Only – Bring Your Own Devise means you already have a mobile phone and just looking for a plan to get the phone connected.
- Mobile plan – Refers to a bundled mobile and plan together to be paid off as a monthly fee
- Outright device – You buy a phone without a plan
- Pre-Paid – You pay upfront for your mobile plan
- Post Paid – You are billed each month for your phones usage
- Unlimited standard national calls & texts – offered on most plans these days, which means for a call to fixed-line phones and mobiles, there is no limit in how many or how long you talk for. Unlimited texts mean you can send as many texts with no further charge to any Australian mobiles.
- International calls – This is a call to another country, and your plan may or may not include this. If this is important to you, make sure your plan includes this or understand your charges.
- International texts – as above but for sending a text message to a mobile in another country.
- Data – refers to the allowance you get over a specific period typically measured in GB. (1 hour of low-resolution video watched back on your phone will consume around 0.5GB of data)
- 3G/4G/5G – refers to the connection your phone has with the mobile network. The higher the number, the faster the data speed, the lower the number, the increased ability to pass through walls etc. Most users will not see any real benefit of going to 5G at this time.
- Number portability – The ability to change carrier but keep your existing number.
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