With Telstra’s new and slightly disappointing plans dropping today we thought we would check in with the state of “SIM only” plans with Australia’s big 3 carriers. Across the board, SIM only plans fit into two distinct categories: month to month and 12 month contract.
As you would expect the plans with a 12 month lock-in offer better value with more data and inclusions when compared to just month to month plans. Interestingly of the big three carriers, Telstra does not offer a 12 month SIM-only plan which really puts them at a disadvantaged to their competitors who end up offering much better value.
Telstra
With Telstra announcing their latest plans today what we have here clearly represents Telstra’s most up to date and competitive SIM only product. Perhaps unfortunately for Telstra they do not offer a 12 month contract lock in and as such their offerings just look non-competitive when compared to others total offerings.
With the cheapest plan clocking in at $50/ month and only offering 15GB of data and the plans topping out at $100/ month with 150GB Telstra is positioned in the middle of the pack for smaller plans but has the distinction of being the only provider to offer a large data cap on a month to month option.
Telstra is well known for not offering the best value but typically has a more robust and wider network. The current plans are also muddied by the inclusion of the “free” access to the 5G network until 30 June 2020. We’re not even going to deal with the issues around potentially charging extra for 5G coverage after that in this post, lets just say, we’re not fans on the plan.
Overall unless you’re wanting 100GB of data on a month to month plan you can probably get better options elsewhere.
Optus
Optus does offer both month to month and 12 month contract SIM-only plans, as you would expect the 12 month contracts are significantly better value.
Month to month
12 month contract
I wouldn’t call any of the month to month plans good value, so unless you 100% need the flexibility to swap networks looking at Optus 12 month SIM only contracts is the better move. At the lower end of their 12 month plans you’re not getting the best value, but if your a data hog then their $45 for 100GB plan is rather compelling, especially with unlimited national talk and text.
Vodafone
Vodafone has a similar story to Optus in that their month to month SIM-only plans don’t really offer value but their 12 month contract plans are very strong.
Month to month
12 month contract
Vodafone come strong out of the gate with their 12 month plan offering 50GB for $40, for those shopping at the lower end of the price point this is one of the best plans I have found. From there Vodafone and Optus seem to tag team with Optus for value but do offer a massive 125GB option for only $65, if you need all the data that’s not a bad price.
Overall if you’re looking for a SIM only plan with the best value for money then you need to consider a 12 month contract, this basically rules out Telstra as a first party provider. If however you want the Telstra network on a SIM only plan we’d recommend you check in on 3rd party resellers of Telstra service like JB HiFi who have some fantastic deals like $45/ month for 50GB.
Are Telstra plans dropping though? Looks to me like they’re going up…?
Are they dropping though? Looks to me like they’re going up…?
Jeenee $12.90 for 5GB data, free calls and sms
Vodafone shared data plans are a big thing for my family. We can reduce the average cost of our plans by using shared data and paying for one monster data plan and the other plans can be under what they actually use.
Just a thought.
hell, with 3 plans on the base tier you’re getting 150GB, that’s a lot to start with!