Mobile phone plan options?

[MasterOfReality]

I'm with an optus provider and I have nearly finished my 2 year contract.

I have the free time 20 minute calls, and lately I have been getting calls from my provider via a Phillipines call centre trying to sign me up to another plan. Obviously they want me to sign up to another plan so I loose my free time. They have even resorted to telling me that my call rates have been changed to $1.98 a minute. I told them to get their facts straight and hung up.

I know I can continue on a month by month basis as I have done so in the past, but I have been looking around for options in case I loose the yes time. I basically use it to call my parents who are in another state and the gf when I am away.

I don't have a home phone at the moment because I am renovating but the line is there and is activated but obviously won't work if I just hook a phone up to it.

Vodafone is the only company that offers free calls to other vodafone mobiles so I'm looking at them.

Good or bad?

Another option is voip/naked adsl.

Good or bad?

cheers

[VKCOMMO]

it depends on how much you want to spend and how much you use, im a heavy user so i use $400 calls, 500mb internet and around 2000 text a month, now if i had to pay al full for that i would cut down but your best going like me and going on a cap if your making alot of calls, i pay $79 a month and get $550 of calls, unlimited text and mms, and 700mb of internet and a free iphone 3g 16GB (please note that optus tricks you by not adding GST on those prices so its an extra $7.90 a month and your calls are cut back to $500 a month).

Your probably best to go for one of those heavy caps if your making alot of calls but if your not making many calls you can cut back to plans where you pay maybe around $50 and get 300$ of calls or so.

how much do you use your phone (yes, i read the calls mum and dad and GF bit) and what for (i.e internet, text, MMS etc...)

[D-Man]

ok naked adsl is internet. - internet but you can also get the voip hooked up to it

voip is voice over ip (internet protocol) - phones

Vodafone are good - price wise etc been with them from day 1 (bout 5 years now) the only real issue i have with them is that their network in the west is a bit dodgey and getting out into the country you lose reception fairly easy.

Optus and Telscum have the best networks but i believe that Voda have the best plans and prices.


as for Voip - iinet have a good package at the moment but shop around and you will find cheaper (but that doesnt mean better)

[VKCOMMO]

oh. i forgot to add in, where do you use it, cause if your using it out in the sticks then it is best to go with the devil (devil being telstra) because their next G is, i must say, excellent.

[MasterOfReality]

Cheers blokes.

I don't use much, I would go a $40-$50 a month plan for mobile, and from what I saw Vodafone has like $350 in credit on those plans.

I already have wireless usb internet but I'm not in a contract so I can get rid of that anytime, and I'm not a heavy user at all, less than 1 gig a month.

Everyone I talk to says avoid Vodafone like the plague, but then again they whinge when it doesn't work in the bush. Well duh, neither does Floptus, only Telstra does.

The main thing I'm trying to decide is whether to go to Vodafone on a plan, or get the voip to replace the home phone that I will probably get when I finish the reno's.

Edit - vkcommo, I regularly go bush to the Pilbara and other parts of Australia for work, but I get a satellite phone from work. I used to be with Telstra, who's coverage is excellent, but they charge too much for what essentially is a phone to chat to the parents/gf when in the city.