It’s fairly common to purchase a SIM card in the country you’re travelling to in order to avoid those pesky international roaming charges. Optus and TravelSIM has today announced a new mobile service, not for Australians travelling to other countries – but for international travellers and students in Australia.
Called gotravelsim, the service is aimed at international travellers and students travelling, or studying in Australia which Optus says has been ‘customised to deliver better service for international visitors to Australia’. The new plans, backed by the Optus 4G Plus network provide ‘travellers with confidence that their service is backed by Optus network coverage from capital cities to rural and regional towns’ says TravelSIM Australia CEO Jamien Zimmerman.
There are both month-to-month and 12-month plans available for customers, with varying amounts of data and international call credit, as well as unlimited calls and texts for use to standard Australian numbers. Optus and TravelSIM have decided to go with an Australian animal naming convention for the new plans using Bilby, Wallaby and Kangaroo to denote their $30, $40 and $50 plans mobile plans, but they also have Bandicoot, Dingo and Emu for data plans. The plans for gotravelsim look like this:
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gotravelsim month-to-month plans |
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Bilby 6GB $30 / month |
Wallaby 10GB $40 / month |
Kangaroo 15GB $50 / month |
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6GB Data Unlimited standard Australian calls & text $50 standard international calls included |
10GB Data Unlimited standard Australian calls & texts $300 standard international calls included |
15GB Data Unlimited standard Australian calls & texts $500 standard international calls included |
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gotravelsim 12-month plans |
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Bilby 10GB $30 / month for 12 months |
Wallaby 18GB $40 / month for 12 months |
Kangaroo 23GB $50 / month for 12 months |
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10GB Data Unlimited standard Australian calls & text $50 standard international calls included |
18GB Data Unlimited standard Australian calls & texts $300 standard international calls included |
23GB Data Unlimited standard Australian calls & texts $500 standard international calls included |
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gotravelsim month-to-month data plans |
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Bandicoot 8GB $35 / month |
Dingo 15GB $45 / month |
Emu 20GB $65 / month |
To purchase a new plan, or talk with someone about getting a new plan using gotravelsim, you can check out the TravelSIM website at www.gotravelsim.com, or by calling their 24/7 Australian based customer service team on 1300 417 015.
Hey Optus, when will you introduce eSIM? Remove the need for a SIM card altogether. The travellers can purchase it electronically, and have it delivered in advance over the internet.
The Google Pixel 2 & 3 phones can use eSIMs. Google’s Project Fi network shows how it should be done.