Use ALDI sim cards
Australia has three telephone network operators, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.Australia is a large and sparsely populated place.
Telstra was the government phone company which was privatised in the 1990's but still has the largest network by far. It also is the biggest provider of Internet access under its name and subsidiary "Big Pond".
The point there is that Telstra are best option for your Working Holiday travels in Australia if you want to stay connected to the world. THE PROBLEM is that Telstra is expensive and difficult to deal with.
Optus and Vodafone are much smaller networks and so at times in the bush or country you will find yourself with out network service. The pricing is much better on prepaid than Telstra and arguably the service is a little better.
The best of all at the time of writing was ALDI Sim cards
- You can buy the SIM card at any store for $5
- Their plans are low cost and easy to understand
- You can do everything online through friendly web site that has fewer words and bigger writing :)
- The best thing is that you are connecting to the Telstra network! so you get the best coverage possible
The cheapest plan is $15, but this comes with just a little data, so budget for $20 for their medium plan which includes 1GB of data per month.
Extra tip: Ensure that parents have a Facebook Messenger account so you can call them through Facebook. Its reliable, fast and will save on international phones calls. Skype used to be in the preferred international voice / video over the internet, but its technology is old and less reliable since being purchased by Microsoft.
Related Links:
Aldi Mobile