Mobile phone use in Oz

Glitter

Hi

My parents are going to Australia for 3 months - although they will be staying with friends who have a landland for internet access etc.. they would still like the use of their mobile phone.

Can someone please advise are they better taking their currnet PAYG sim and mobile and me top it up from the Uk or can they buy an Australian sim card and put it in their own phone when they get over there?

Thanks,
Deb

madtrekker

It depends how much and how they're going to be using it but given that they're going for 3 months, I'd say it would be worth buying an Australian SIM card when they get there. That way, calls within Oz (e.g. to the friends they're staying with when out and about, booking hotels or anything like that) will be quite cheap (around 30c per min - about 10p). Using a UK phone in Oz would cost a fair bit (upwards of 35p min depending on network).
For calls back to the UK, they'd be better off buying a phone card out there that would let them use any Oz landline (at friends or public phone etc). Shop around, you can get very cheap calls back to UK. Or even better, get Skype!

madtrekker

Meant to add this info from Vodafone Australia (other networks are available out there)
http://www.vodafone.com.au/Personal/PricingPlans/Prepay/Plans/index.htm

Donnie

Virgin Mobile Australia is possibly the cheapest for PAYG.

Glitter

Thanks everyone

bestyman

The best way to recieve calls from the uk would be to buy a sim from www.sim4travel.co.uk . With this sim you get a UK mobile number but there are no roaming charges in Oz , so people in the UK could ring you at no extra cost and free to recieve.
Cheaper ways of calling back home though as already mentioned .