long distance cell phones
Sep 17th, 2009, 09:32 PM
#1
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long distance cell phones
Does anyone know of a pre-paid (or something similar) cell phone system we can purchase EASILY when we get to Australia?
Our only goal is to make calls to the US while there. Our US cells will not work.
Thanks,
Joan
Our only goal is to make calls to the US while there. Our US cells will not work.
Thanks,
Joan
Sep 17th, 2009, 10:51 PM
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Joan, you can easily buy a cell (or as they're known here, a mobile) phone in Australia, including at the airport on arrival (although I can't point you to a specific shop).
The major companies are Telstra, Optus and Vodaphone, all of which have exensive national networks and phone shops and agencies such as department stores and electronics stores all over the place. Telstra is safest if you plan to be travelling in remoter areas, but for most places it doesn't much matter which you choose.
The phone will come with a choice of prepaid call values, stored on a SIM (subscriber interface module), a small card inserted into the phone in the battery compartment. The salesperson can help with that, anyway. The SIM also stores your Australian phone number and call records. The phone number scheme is national and will take the form 04NN-NNNNNN - unlike the US, no specfic area code is used. When you exhaust the purchased value it can be topped up.
Prepaid phones are locked to the phone company's network. If you plan to be travelling just about anywhere else in the world outside North America (or Japan), though, you could take it home, pay a phone shop to unlock it and it will work in most countries, as Australian networks subscribe to international ITU standards. All you have to do is buy a prepaid SIM in the country you're visiting.
Alternatively you could buy an *unlocked* phone on eBay in advance, and just buy a prepaid SIM for it when you get to Australia. The phone should as a minimum cater for the international frequency bands 900 and 1800 Megahertz. If you buy a quadband phone, which will also handle the North American frequencies 850 and 1900 Mhz, it will work on US GSM (Global Standard for Mobiles) networks also. Most US networks however do operate to a different standard called CDMA.
Last point: you will find international calling rates from Australian mobiles relatively expensive. To economise on call costs I suggest you also buy a prepaid calling card, which can be used from any landline (e.g. hotel and public phones) and which offer very cheap international rates of a few cents a minute. There's a very wide range that can be bought in newsagents, post offices, Asian groceries and other outlets. To use them you simply dial an Australian access number (either local in each city or a toll-free 1800 number) and follow the voice prompts.
The major companies are Telstra, Optus and Vodaphone, all of which have exensive national networks and phone shops and agencies such as department stores and electronics stores all over the place. Telstra is safest if you plan to be travelling in remoter areas, but for most places it doesn't much matter which you choose.
The phone will come with a choice of prepaid call values, stored on a SIM (subscriber interface module), a small card inserted into the phone in the battery compartment. The salesperson can help with that, anyway. The SIM also stores your Australian phone number and call records. The phone number scheme is national and will take the form 04NN-NNNNNN - unlike the US, no specfic area code is used. When you exhaust the purchased value it can be topped up.
Prepaid phones are locked to the phone company's network. If you plan to be travelling just about anywhere else in the world outside North America (or Japan), though, you could take it home, pay a phone shop to unlock it and it will work in most countries, as Australian networks subscribe to international ITU standards. All you have to do is buy a prepaid SIM in the country you're visiting.
Alternatively you could buy an *unlocked* phone on eBay in advance, and just buy a prepaid SIM for it when you get to Australia. The phone should as a minimum cater for the international frequency bands 900 and 1800 Megahertz. If you buy a quadband phone, which will also handle the North American frequencies 850 and 1900 Mhz, it will work on US GSM (Global Standard for Mobiles) networks also. Most US networks however do operate to a different standard called CDMA.
Last point: you will find international calling rates from Australian mobiles relatively expensive. To economise on call costs I suggest you also buy a prepaid calling card, which can be used from any landline (e.g. hotel and public phones) and which offer very cheap international rates of a few cents a minute. There's a very wide range that can be bought in newsagents, post offices, Asian groceries and other outlets. To use them you simply dial an Australian access number (either local in each city or a toll-free 1800 number) and follow the voice prompts.
Sep 18th, 2009, 07:54 AM
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Hi Neil,
My wife wanted me to thank you for the great response. It was quite good! I have a line on a gently used eBay quad band (Motorola V3 International GSM Phone) I think a prepaid card and SIM for the mobile gives us maximum flexibility. I use the prepaid cards when i'm off fishing in Mexico and they work great. I guess the reamining question is when i get the SIM for the phone in Oz is the phone activated for the service provider at that point by simply putting the sim in the mobile?
George
My wife wanted me to thank you for the great response. It was quite good! I have a line on a gently used eBay quad band (Motorola V3 International GSM Phone) I think a prepaid card and SIM for the mobile gives us maximum flexibility. I use the prepaid cards when i'm off fishing in Mexico and they work great. I guess the reamining question is when i get the SIM for the phone in Oz is the phone activated for the service provider at that point by simply putting the sim in the mobile?
George
Sep 18th, 2009, 03:14 PM
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George and Joan,
Looks like you have it covered. As long as your phone isn't locked to a US network you should have no problem - and you can prove that by inserting someone else's SIM into it and seeing if it works*.
Yes, when you buy your SIM with call credits in Australia it's activated by the vendor and will work as soon as it's inserted in the phone. But judging by Joan's post it seems all you'll need to do is get your just-purchased Vodaphone SIM topped up.
* I learned this the hard way when I took my tri-band phone to the US and discovered it was locked when I tried to buy a prepaid SIM in San Francisco. It shouldn't have been, as it was supplied on a monthly plan, but as I subsequently discovered Telstra had supplied a locked phone in error, from a shipment intended for prepaid customers. Mistakes happen and I could have checked that before I left, but it never occurred to me.
This advice goes double for Americans, I think, as I have the impression that US cell operators usually supply locked phones even on monthly plans with contract periods.
As it happens we bought a prepaid calling card from a Walgreen's and it was all we needed. The mobile would have come in handy a few times, but it wasn't essential.
One further word on prepaid calling cards - as mentioned the rates are very low, but on the "no such thing as a free lunch" principle we have encountered slight delays when using two separate cards to call China, Vietnam and the US. It's only a minor annoyance but it's there.
Looks like you have it covered. As long as your phone isn't locked to a US network you should have no problem - and you can prove that by inserting someone else's SIM into it and seeing if it works*.
Yes, when you buy your SIM with call credits in Australia it's activated by the vendor and will work as soon as it's inserted in the phone. But judging by Joan's post it seems all you'll need to do is get your just-purchased Vodaphone SIM topped up.
* I learned this the hard way when I took my tri-band phone to the US and discovered it was locked when I tried to buy a prepaid SIM in San Francisco. It shouldn't have been, as it was supplied on a monthly plan, but as I subsequently discovered Telstra had supplied a locked phone in error, from a shipment intended for prepaid customers. Mistakes happen and I could have checked that before I left, but it never occurred to me.
This advice goes double for Americans, I think, as I have the impression that US cell operators usually supply locked phones even on monthly plans with contract periods.
As it happens we bought a prepaid calling card from a Walgreen's and it was all we needed. The mobile would have come in handy a few times, but it wasn't essential.
One further word on prepaid calling cards - as mentioned the rates are very low, but on the "no such thing as a free lunch" principle we have encountered slight delays when using two separate cards to call China, Vietnam and the US. It's only a minor annoyance but it's there.
Oct 4th, 2009, 08:45 AM
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We are complete technological idiots, have the cheapest possible cell phone at home which we hardly ever remember to take with us!! However we are now thinking one of these prepaid phones might be helpful on our upcoming Australia/NZ trip - just wondering though would we need a separate phone for each country? Next question, since our first stop in Australia is Cairns, is there a phone shop in the airport there? Presumably there are lots in the town?
Oct 4th, 2009, 04:26 PM
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janeog, there's a Vodaphone outlet at Cairns International Airport in the arrivals section, not sure about Domestic terminal, with all the reconstruction going on there, anything could be happening!
