I've been with Vaya for almost 2 years but they just jacked the prices on existing customers. I was paying $11/month but under the new scheme I can either choose $20.90/month (per KB data counting) or $18/month (per MB data counting).
I'd barely use 30 minutes of voice a month, maybe 30 SMS. For me the most important thing is the data of 1 to 1.5GB/month.
Anyone recommend a better plan/carrier?
per MB charging doubled my usage on Vaya, I switched to Jeenee, bit more pricey though.
I analysed my own usage based on the .xls itemisation spreadsheets Vaya provides:
For July:
582MB in total with 1kB billing vs 1050MB with 1MB billing (80% inflation)
520 sessions <1024kB + 530MB of data in sessions >=1024kB.
For June:
945MB with 1kB billing vs 1451MB with 1MB billing (54% inflation)
506 sessions <1024kB and 945MB of data in sessions >=1024kB.
It's pretty significant. Seems to imply that for my usage patterns 1.5GB of per MB counting is equivalent to about 1GB with per kB counting.
I should note I work from home so most of the time my mobile is actually on Wi-Fi. I imagine the low usage sessions would be much higher for most folks who would leave the house for school/work and would thus be on 3G/4G a lot more than I.
Amaysim has a PAYG SIM - PAYG voice + SMS, and can purchase a 1GB data pack for $9.90/30 days. 90 day expiry on credit.
http://www.amaysim.com.au/mobile-plans
If I made 30 minutes of voice calls + 30 SMS texts a month that works out to $17.20/month. I'm fairly sure I could avoid making calls altogether or use Skype or other VoIP apps. Same with SMS.
Lyca Mobile also has a similar plan but PAYG voice/SMS rates are higher (15c/min/SMS on Lyca, 12c/min/SMS on Amaysim), and $10/month for 1+1GB data. So 2GB data vs Amaysim's 1GB, but the +1 is because they call the extra GB a "bonus" which seems to imply it could be taken away at any time.
Lyca has TERRIBLE reception. Tried it, ran away. Its like the Dodo of mobile carriers.
TPG has 1.5GB for $17.99/month PAYG calls and SMS at 12c/min/SMS.
Edit: — nevermind, didn't notice the Plus Plans
Sorry I meant to include a link - it's one of their "Plus" plans.
Isn't that illegal? Or is that just if your plan is expiring or month by month? If you are on a two year plan and still under contract with vaya I assume you would pay the same amount till your plan expires?
I don't know about other Vaya customers but I've always been on a month-to-month plan.
And TBH given they shonky representation* of the fee increase I really don't want anything to do with Vaya going forward so I'm quite happy to leave them.
*- they called it a "Plan Freeze Fee" and label it "good news".
Quote: "The good news is that now you can now KEEP your current plan, however it will be subject to a $9.90 Plan Freeze Fee per service per month."
Nowhere in the email they sent does it mention the total cost either.
TransACT resells Vodafone for $20/month for 1.5GB + $450 included call credit.
PennyTel looks like it could be a winner
$8.88/mo for 1GB, includes $10 of call credit only (can't be used for SMS). National and mobile calls are untimed 46c/call. 11.5c/SMS. 1300/13/1800 numbers are 19c/min.
Vodafone 3G network
Can't seem to delete this comment.
PennyTel was acquired by MyNetFone in 2013 and haven't been taking new customers since. I guess the site only exists for the information of existing customers :(
Am I right in thinking the other options only have 3G data whereas Vaya has 4G?
Yeah they're all 3G as far as I know.
My Flexi Cap $11 plan on Amaysim was 3G until a couple of weeks ago too when they mysteriously upgraded me to LTE (4G). 4G has higher maximum speeds and more importantly lower latency which makes browsing faster.
In my experience it's a nice to have, not worth paying for.
also not available everywhere so irrelevant for some.
Try yatango, purchase 1gb data pack and then pyg calls & sms. Could b lest than $15p/m.
I was going to sign up with Vaya as my Vodafone plan is finishing now. But I will not sign up now. Instead of that will go with Aldi.
Vaya still pretty good value IMO. $18 plan is 1.5GB plus a pretty good call allowance. Obviously you are not going to be happy if you were on a cheaper plan with them before though.
Does anyone have knowledge of how Vodafone reception and coverage in Sydney metro stacks up v Optus?
The $18 plan is per MB counting as well. I don't know for sure but I've seen a few users say that they've blown through their 1.5GB limit on 1MB counting when on 1kB or 10kB unit counting they were using ~900MB.
It makes sense because many apps nowadays "sip" data regularly. They aren't using a lot of bytes in total but they are regularly grabbing small updates. If the minimum count is 1MB block you only have 1500 such sessions before hitting your limit. It's not quite that simple though, as the definition of a "session" varies between carriers as well.
I just signed up with TransACT on their $20 plan so I'm hoping Vodafone is ok now ;)
I did use a Vodafone SIM back in March, though only for a week (I signed up on a month to month plan in order to use their Red Roaming feature overseas, it was really good). Had no problems. Only degradation I saw was in the Sydney airport railway tunnel data dropped from LTE (4G) to EDGE (2G) which was really slow.
Sadly this seems to be an ongoing issue: http://community.vodafone.com.au/t5/Network/Sydney-Airport-T…
I had my Optus phone as well at the time and that was fine in the airport railway tunnel.
Reception in the airport tunnel is dreadful considering how recently it was built. I'm sure new visitors to Sydney are amazed at this 'world city' standard of service. Even the ancient city circle tunnels have decent reception now.
I've been on Optus network for a number of years with Virgin, Optus themselves and now Vaya. Have never been very impressed with the consistency of their reception. If I thought Vodafone was much of an improvement I would seriously consider switching.
Seriously considering moving as well, so after checking out most of the plans on offers, might either go with telechoice $20 plan, transact $20 plan or I could stay with Vaya and use the same plan I have now. Pretty much its reception (telstra v vodafone v optus) and data (1GB v 1.5BG v 1.5GB).
Yeah it's much of a muchness in terms of value/features/reception.
I'm leaving Vaya mostly out of spite.
Ben, the CEO, said on Whirlpool that folks would get to stay on their Flexi plans for at least 24 months. Turns out his word is meaningless.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2262441&p…
Still, I would have been ok if he'd just said "hey, Optus have raised their prices so unfortunately we also have to raise ours" but instead he tried to spin it as "good news".
I'm not sure how dumb he thinks his customers are but I don't need to be insulted by my phone provider. There are plenty of other people on the Internet who are willing to do that, for free.
Live Connected customers got the exact same email. Not happy
A bit like Vaya/Lc, your first bill on TransACT could spill $135, if you do something innocuous such as 2gb _equal to that standard value telechoice/Lycamobile offer.
($15 card $20 MTM $100/500MB overage) Reading over transACT's charges.
For that reasoning, I would have leaned toward Lycamobile, if only tolerable / 3G only data. Also one may even set the automatic renewal MTM(month to month) to OFF so essentially as neat as prepaid.
If you're not particularly inclined to the mobile number, you could put it on a spare handset on Telstra Longlife and use $2/500MB optus $2day when you want data (I picked up $71 = 35gig at 50% off at Kmart last week). Skype may also send out my number as CID if I VoIP.
I favour my direct connection to Voda over a re seller so get 1800Mhz infinite txt 1.5gb ATM on Prepaid CAP 40. Comes down to ~ $27 after -15%, -5%, and value-based FlyBuys offer. If Voda was to remove access to my favourites($0.58=350MB)-packs I'd have no option but to regress to optus.
From what I have seen the data tends to reduce along with the call allowance, so you might find a cheaper plan but with maybe only around 300MB. I don't know if you will find anything with 1.5GB and low calls for less than what Vaya is offering. I'm on the vaya $18 plan which I am pretty happy with. I use little of the call allowance and around half the data.