It’s easy to look at nothing but prices when shopping for a mobile carrier. If you’re doing that, you’re unlikely to land with the big three. Telstra is known for its coverage, Vodafone for decent inclusions and Optus for value. In this instance, being an Optus-based MNVO, amaysim fits the mould for Optus while offering great value too.
All of that is great, but if one of the key components that users look for in a carrier is terrible, then failure is just a matter of time.
Sign up process
The signup process is easy enough that I’d happily tell a family member who isn’t technically inclined, they can do it themselves via the website or download the amaysim app to their phone.
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=amaysim&c=apps
The process is guided and extremely well-worded to ensure that anyone can understand the process and requirements. In very simple terms, you choose a plan, choose (or port) your number, choose your SIM type, verify your ID and set up your payment method.
In my case, I chose to go with an eSIM, and the whole process was over in minutes.
Once this is done, you’ll have to wait a few minutes for your eSIM to be ready and sent to your device through the app. Once you accept the eSIM, it’s installed on your device and you’re connected. There’s no waiting for the physical SIM to come in the post, no need to open fiddly SIM trays or otherwise mess around with your device.
Coverage: Calls, Speed and Consistency
It’s very difficult to say that the coverage will meet any individual needs without knowing where you live, where you work and where you spend your spare time. I primarily spend my time in the metropolitan Adelaide area, and, for the most part, coverage was perfectly fine and provided me with more than acceptable data speeds.
I did have a few issues with coverage degradation — specifically some inconsistent data speeds, not outright signal drop — in fringe areas through chain of ponds and around the Hahndorf and Mt Lofty area. In fairness, other carriers have some issues around there as the area’s topography is challenging to get a strong signal to all areas at all times.
I suspect I’m now in the minority of users who still use their phones to make phone calls. But when I was on the phone, the calls were of great quality with crisp voice audio. Only one of my calls noted to me that I sounded different to usual, but there were several factors in that including location, network and the device I was on; any of which could have played a factor.
As with any carrier; we recommend checking their coverage map before changing over. For amaysim, that’s driven by the Optus network. In honesty, while Telstra is often recognised for having the best coverage, Optus recently gained recognition for its consistency of coverage and I saw this (apart from those fringe areas mentioned) during my testing time.
Service and Features
An interesting distinction of the amaysim offering is that you have the option to choose a 4G only plan. Provided you don’t need the blistering speed of 5G then, you’re certainly not going to miss it and, frankly, our 4G networks in Australia are pretty impressive.
Regardless of whether you choose 4G or to have the full 5G experience, there are a few included extras in the service.
One of the service bonuses that seems to interest a lot of people who I know on amaysim is unlimited data banking. For me, I think I’d rather go on a plan that meets rather than well exceeds my needs. It’ll be cheaper in the long run and, if needed, you can always to up!
Revisiting an earlier point about the service, it’s difficult to say whether any particular carrier will meet individual users’ needs. In this case, I had a really good time of it because Optus — the carrier network amaysim runs on — has great coverage through the areas I frequent most.
The plans have some reasonably generous data allowances for the money and with other inclusions, offer pretty competitive rates. I’d say, if you’re considering a new carrier and amaysim (Optus) has coverage, then it’s going to be worth investigating, if not trying out the network.
Disclosure: amaysim donated two months of service to facilitate this review. During the review period, I maintained my number with my chosen carrier but used the amaysim service as a primary calling and use option.
Does Amaysim offer WiFi Calling? Although Optus is better for me with reception here, it’s still something I want.
Phil, you might want to update a screenshot that has your phone number…unless it’s a dummy one. 🙂
Thanks – It was only valid for the review period and will be disconnected in the next few days.
this is same case with optus, telstra and woolworths apps since a year. paid article
Hi oppo,
There is a disclosure at the bottom of the review stating that amaysim have provided access to their service for the review period.
If this was a paid article, it would be labelled as sponsored content.