iPhone 4 plan – Telstra or Optus ?

**bee utey** · 15th February 2011, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by VladTepes

How do you not use messagebank. What happens when people ring and you don't answer ?

Mosy people I ring who have message bank don't use it anyway, they just use the "missed calls" function as its free. They never know why I called when they return my calls!

**BigJon** · 15th February 2011, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by VladTepes

How do you not use messagebank. What happens when people ring and you don't answer ?

The same thing as what happens on my home phone. Nothing. No message bank. On a mobile you will see a missed call if it was on, if it was off you see nothing.

BTW, if you go anywhere outside of the major city centres Telstra is the only way to go. Bearing in mind their customer service is on par with any other telco, that is to say - Hopeless.

**lpj** · 15th February 2011, 01:55 PM

Hi,

An unbiased opinion from someone who isn't a Telstra dealer and doesn't own Telstra shares.

Dont get get caught up in the Telstra hype if they don't have a plan that suits what you want to do with the phone. I currently have an iPhone 4 on Telstra after 10+ years on just about any phone you can imagine on Optus. I worked at Optus for 7 years and by the time I left, I was more than ready to ditch them for Telstra.

Honestly, while it is marginally better, I don't notice it too much. In fact, I now get drop outs where i previously didn't and vice versa. With Telstra, I had a number of drop outs in suburban Perth, but less so in Melbourne and Adelaide. The 3G wireless speed is certainly faster, but that also means you chew through the Data faster, which you will be charged for.

You mentioned you are with Virgin, which is Optus anyway. Are you happy with the coverage you currently have? If so, then it will be the same or marginally better with the iPhone 4, as it operates on 850 (Telstra 3G) 900 (Optus 3G) as well as 1900 & 2100, which you current handset may not.

I would liken it to the Toyota vs Landrover argument. Both are very capable, well built vehicles, but both have their little idiosyncrasies. In the right hands, they can both do just about whatever you need them to do. Some people just prefer Toyotas (not me!)

I don't believe that the Networks are as far apart as some one eyed die hards would have you believe. The price however may be. Get the plan you want.

LPJ

**abaddonxi** · 15th February 2011, 03:45 PM

Originally Posted by VladTepes

How do you not use messagebank. What happens when people ring and you don't answer ?

Answer the phone?

**p38arover** · 15th February 2011, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by VladTepes

How do you not use messagebank. What happens when people ring and you don't answer ?

Nothing. I get a missed call and the number is displayed. I can call them back if I wish. If their number is blocked, bad luck, they'll have to call me again.

I have MessageBank turned off. Ditto on my wife's 3 phone.

**big guy** · 15th February 2011, 04:04 PM

Telstra for reception and bad attitude.
Vodafone for o.k reception and o.k attitude.
Optus for truly crap reception with crap attitude.

Take your pick.
Keep in mind Telstra just put up their charge rate to minimum 60sec call charges.
So even if you call and talk for 5 sec. you will be billed for min 1 min.

Wife is Iphone 4 with Vodafone. Not bad.
I am with Telstra, great reception but expensive and useless help over the phone.

**djam1** · 15th February 2011, 05:23 PM

I have an IPhone 4 on a $49 cap plan with Telstra and once I got past the teething problems its been a good thing.
Something I have done is setup the IPhone 4 with SKYPE I pay 3 cents a minute for VOIP calls pretty well anywhere.
That way when I go near the $400 worth of calls I can avoid being done over by Telstra for the additional calls.

I hate Telstra with a passion but they are the only ones with any actual coverage in the area that I live in.

**jonesy63** · 19th February 2011, 04:40 PM

Just another option... my wife's iPhone 3 is on TPG - which uses the Optus network. Reception is ok everywhere she's been so far.

As I'm on TPG for broadband, her phone is on the "medium" plan - which gives her $330 calls to any network, $370 calls to TPG, and 1GB data per month, for $14.99/mth. Service with TPG has been better than my experience with Telstra and Optus.

We've saved heaps of money on this plan. Eg. Make most long distance calls from it instead of the home phone, not to mention mobile-mobile calls.

Cheers,
Rob

**p38arover** · 19th February 2011, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by big guy

Vodafone for o.k reception and o.k attitude.

Not according to all those who want a class action against VF over service.

Originally Posted by big guy

Keep in mind Telstra just put up their charge rate to minimum 60sec call charges.
So even if you call and talk for 5 sec. you will be billed for min 1 min.

I just had a look at the VF site and they appear charge per minute, too - 90 cents per minute + 35 flagfall! My Telstra $30 prepaid (expiring in 6 months) is only $1 per 4 minutes with no flag fall.

**Utemad** · 19th February 2011, 06:41 PM

I just looked into Telstra with iPhone4 16gb for my wife. They have the 16gb model on the $49 cap plus $9 per month for the phone over 24 months
Up until very recently it was on the same plan for $175 up front so in real terms they put the price of the phone up by $41.

Keep in mind the iPhone 5 is due out mid this year although probably not at the equivalent price as above right away.

Apple iPhone 4 and Apple iPhone 3GS from Telstra

As for Optus we recently moved to Dalby Qld and live in suburbia less than a 2km walk to the main street. Optus coverage here is terrible but NextG is 100% coverage. As I have 12 months of my Optus plan to go I called Optus to see what it would cost to terminate the contract and it was around about $400 but they would halve it because I was in a poor Optus reception area. However if I stayed they would give me $20 off a month (on my $29 plan). I also asked them about getting out of my wife's contract 3 weeks early thinking they would just say ok given the above. They wouldn't do it but did credit our account with $100 for our trouble. So effectively if I don't go over the plan limit in monthly spend our phone bill is nearly wiped out for the year (actually it is wiped out as they credited us $150 for something else recently).
They must be desperate to keep customers as they aren't going to make any money out of it.
Their 'retention' call centre is Australian and couldn't be more helpful really. Interesting how the call centres used to sign you up and keep you when you try and leave are helpful Aussie centres but anything you need done in between is done by the most unhelpful overseas call centres possible.

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