Geocaching Australia

Coming over to Australia for a couple of weeks, and I'm wondering if it is practical and possible to get a prepaid SIM with a reasonable data allowance for checking email, weather etc on an iPhone 3G whilst travelling around caching

Alternatively, I would consider a USB modem as an option.

Can anyone suggest or recommend a vendor/plan that may suit?

Naturally there is no way I'm going to use roaming data from New Zealand!

I have a wirelss modem with dodo (ww.dodo.com.au), and I think they charge $30 for a new SIM, and like 1G allowance prepaid for about $30.

Since you don't want to be locked into a long-term plan, most of the majors will probably be out.

This one might suit:
http://www.exetel.com.au/residential-hspa-pricing.php

$25 start-up, $5/month but no fixed term, $15/GB for the first GB in the month, then $25/GB

If you're only surfing and emailing, you should get away with only a few bucks worth of download fee.

Go next G, best coverage and speed available.

A 2 second google found this. http://www.telstra.com.au/telstraprepaidplus/index.htm

I agree that Telstra NextG is the best bet, especially if you want coverage out of the cities. Probably not the cheapest however. Your I-Phone would need to support 850 MHz WCDMA however, not just any 3G network. I-Phones sold by Telstra do of course, but not those sold by the other majors here. Don't know about NZ.

Coffee and Cache wrote:I agree that Telstra NextG is the best bet, especially if you want coverage out of the cities. Probably not the cheapest however. Your I-Phone would need to support 850 MHz WCDMA however, not just any 3G network. I-Phones sold by Telstra do of course, but not those sold by the other majors here. Don't know about NZ.

All Aus 3g iPhones are the same and as far as I know, are the same worldwide. All 3g iphones support 850MHz.WCDMA.


From Apple website;
# UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
# GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

All Aus sold iphones are locked to the network that supplied the phone but all can be unlocked(for a price).
Iphones sold in NZ are unlocked apparently and if so will work with any Aus sim .

Thanks for the pointers all! Next-G sounds good in terms of coverage.

I'm wondering if it is possible to get a compatible USB modem (unlocked) here in NZ that we could bring over and just get the SIM and plan to work on the Next-G network. From our perspective Telstra would probably be the easiest to arrange access to, as it would be easier for us to pop into a store in Sydney and pick up the pack. Whilst some of the other options do look cheaper, it might be harder for us as travellers to set up at relatively short notice.

Is software an issue? I see that the Next G has special software to connect, manage SMS etc. I wonder if we BYO modem, if we can download the software?

I use a next G SIM in my phone and then just USB connect it to my PC. Works fine 468 KBS connection every time.

The usb modems are of course faster from my understanding.

KevL wrote: All Aus 3g iPhones are the same and as far as I know, are the same worldwide. All 3g iphones support 850MHz.WCDMA.

Thank you for that correction.

Team Piggy wrote:I use a next G SIM in my phone and then just USB connect it to my PC. Works fine 468 KBS connection every time.

The usb modems are of course faster from my understanding.

Depends on the phone I think, not to mention that 4G roll outs are expected to be started in 2010-2012 so we get to go round the upgrade cycle yet again!