• expired

E.Tel Mobile Plan (Optus 4G Network) - $11p/m for 11GB Data, Unlimited Calls & SMS, $19.95 Credit for MMS, International Calls

890

After being on the $18p/m Circles.Life plan that was discounted from $28p/m to $18p/m for only 12 months, prior to the end of the plan term, I went on the hunt for a better deal after Circles.Life advised they couldn't extend the discount and could only offer more data for 3 months as an incentive (I later received an email though saying they were extending the $18p/m plan offer though).

To further save on my monthly bill, I had a look at my monthly data usage and discovered that since I've been mainly working from home, I don't need anywhere near 20gb of data a month and with a bit of luck, I managed to find a hidden Etel promo page offering an $11 plan with 11GB data, unlimited calls and SMS. One catch with this plan is that MMS IS NOT included and comes at a cost of $0.75 per MMS but if I'm comprehending the CIS correctly, you receive $19.95 in credit per month to use on MMS and international calls which is a nice bonus.

There's no contract and the discount is guaranteed for 12 months.

Ensure you sign up via the linked page as this offer isn't advertised on their main site. I'll also provide a heads up that porting is very, very slow currently for Etel - I'm told they're migrating to a new system and had to do all port requests manually. On the upside, I called them three times to follow up when the porting request would be completed and managed to get through each time very quickly.

Cheers.

Related Stores

E.Tel
E.Tel

closed Comments

  • +3

    This was also the flaw of the Dodo $5/mth SIM - no MMS included. Kinda takes the shine off.

    • -5

      Just add people on WhatsApp?

    • +6

      Who use mms

      • +8

        Some phones automatically revert to MMS when you send an SMS with an emoji.
        Either that, messaging pictures or sending long texts.

      • Lots of people. Long SMS are converted to MMS automatically.

        • +4

          Used to be - modern networks and protocols use concatenation which negates the need to send long SMSs as a MMS. SMS character limit is 160 but with concatenation a message longer than this can be divided into up to 10 parts giving you a ~1600 character limit.

          https://confluence.modicagroup.com/display/OPTUS/Encoding+an…

          • @akyeeeahdude: Yeah but the second you add a gif or a sound effect it'll still convert.

            Im still young so basically every message between me and friends and anyone else has a meme or media attached, haha.

            • @MasterScythe: yeah but why would you be using sms for that instead of telegram/signal?

              • @ikt: I am, but nowhere near 100% of my contact list is.

      • Businesses

      • We do, a lot, when sending longer documents via SMS

        How much would an MMS, that became MMS, by an SMS becoming "too long" to stay a Free SMS…?

        MMS's could add heap to our bill, even though text-only SMS's "got too long"… or are they Cheap?

        • +1

          Check my reply above - you can test this on your phone by writing over 160 characters in a SMS. On Android you'll see the character limit resets and shows 160 / 2 etc.

      • -1

        Tons of people man!

        Sending pictures to each other is super popular.

    • +2

      Yep, literally cancelled my dodo plan today because no MMS included.

  • +2

    Seems decent! Thanks OP.
    Not fussed with MMS as im mostly using iMessage

    • +6

      good if you only have iFriends

      • +1

        Friends?

        • Not just any friends, iFriends.

      • How may I download more friends?

    • Yep! Many people I know use FB Messenger too. You've still got $19.95 credit per month to use which would allow you to send 26 MMSs at no additional cost.

  • +2

    Would you consider Boost for Telstra network? $150 / 12 months for 80gb. 6.6gb for $12.5 per month.

    • +1

      I can't see this Boost deal anymore? Currentlyt Boost has $200 deal

      • sometimes discounted…

      • You’ll have to go back in time

      • +1

        I've got a second hand flux capacitor that i'm willing to sell for the right price.

        • I'll pay you the 1955 price.

    • +1

      I cant see that price on boost website. Can you advise where can you that price now?

    • my current plan ($150 for year) is expiring 20 of JAN and boost send me a text if i recharge the same plan before expiry they will give me a 40Gb bonus. Wifi calling/VOLTE makes it good deal.

      • I never got and mine expires 30 Jan

        • I got couple of days ago may be you will get it soon.

          • @Bacha: Lucky mine expiring in a couple days, not holding my breath for the SMS

  • +1

    No mms = no deal

    • +2

      $19.95 credit each month can be used to send ~26 MMSs as per above.

      • +1

        only 26 nudes for month :-(

        • Fansonly.

        • 26 working days
          4 rest days

  • +5

    I'll also provide a heads up that porting is very, very slow currently for Etel - I'm told they're migrating to a new system and had to do all port requests manually. On the upside, I called them three times to follow up when the porting request would be completed and managed to get through each time very quickly.

    Just a word of warning for anyone that needs to port ASAP - it took nearly three weeks for them to port my mother over, and that was before they were supposedly migrating to a new system.

    • +2

      Yeah, I'm unsure what's going on with them lately. Porting my wife to them mid 2020 was done in two business days (which isn't great but OK) and porting my number recently took three weeks (it was activated this morning).

      • +1

        were you able to use your phone in those three weeks? does it just cut off for a few hours while the porting finalises or does it not work for a period of days/hours?

        If it's only a couple hours it's fine I'll just port in advanced I guess.. (my current plan ends in a month)

        • Yes I was as they hadn't actually commenced porting due to the backlog they had. I got a text this morning telling me they would be sending the port request shortly and to use my new Etel sim when I lost service. Shortly after I lost service with Circles.Life and then swapped sims and all was good.

    • +5

      porting your mother over sounds so 2077 :/

      • Chuckled a bit when I read that

  • +1

    are they using Optus or Vodafone network?

  • +1

    If you get a number from them, port out fee is 20 bucks. Just read the CIS

    • +4

      May as well post the full section:

      Porting Policy: If you applied for a new number with E.Tel, a $20 Port out Handling Fee applies if you port the
      service away to another provider within 6 months. This fee does NOT apply if you ported-in your number or if
      you disconnect your service.

  • +8

    MMS, wot? is this 2003?

  • +1

    NETWORK used in title, thanks

  • +2

    They had a plan few months ago and it was $18pm for 25gb per month. That was pretty decent.
    Looks like still ongoing :
    https://www.etel.com.au/data2518

  • I just wanted to share that I had a lot of trouble trying to port to etel from catch connect. After about 3 attempts to do the port, I gave up and Kogan did it very quickly. Ymmv

    • No issues moving my wife from Optus to Etel mid 2020 and apart from the delay, no issues moving from Circles.Life to Etel recently for my number.

  • +4

    Just a heads up the anyone considering. Took them over 2 weeks to port my number over which left me without an active sim. I also left them months ago and found mystery charges from them in my bank account this month. Not worth the savings.

    • +2

      Vaya all over again?

    • Why didn't you have an active sim? Did you cancel with your current provider first?

      • I had around 5 days of my previous plan left so didn't want to pay for another month. Thought 5 days would give me enough time but unfortunately not.

  • +1

    I tried moving to them since December. Waited weeks and just canceled when I got the $10 off extension email from Circles.

  • I’ve been with these guys on the $15/25GB promotion and it’s been fine. Can we post referral links?

    • Do you know what you receive from Etel for referring customers? I had a quick look but couldn't see any mention of anything on their website.

  • +6

    $120 / 120gb with Catch Connect sounds less painless and on Optus also.

    • +2

      Totally agree, why bother with all this nonsense .
      Go pre paid it's painless.
      Catch via unidays is $108

  • +5

    I'm glad you posted this because this company is not included on WhistleOut's price-comparison website for some reason.

    A summary of other current best-value plans on WhistleOut:

    Plan Equivalent price per month Data per month Network
    iiNet Mobile 6GB Plan $10 (for first 6 months) 6GB Vodafone 4G
    gomo $25 Subscription $12.5 ($25 first 3 months, then free next 3 months. apply before 28/02/2021) 18GB (with rollover) Optus 4G
    Circles.Life 20GB Monthly Plan $22 (after $6 off, first 12 months) 60GB (after 40GB bonus, first 12 months) Optus 4G Plus
    felix $35 Subscription (also here) $35 unlimited (20Mbps speed cap) Vodafone 4G
    • iinet deal Doubles in price after Deal months

      PS How to make tables, like that…?

      • +1

        Making tables: If you start a comment, under the textbox says "Formatting Help", if you click on that it says you can use "Markdown" and "Markdown Extra" syntax to format comments. If you go to the link for Markdown Extra it explains the syntax to make tables. Basically, put | between every cell, and "- | - | - …" after the first line to separate the header from the table, like this:

        First Header | Second Header
        ——————- | ——————-
        Content Cell | Content Cell
        Content Cell | Content Cell

    • +1

      Optus 4g vs 4g plus?

  • Can mobile enabled apple watch be used with this?

    • +1

      I don't think they have esim.

  • +2

    2% credit card fee. No other payment method.

    New numbers will be activated within 15 mins.
    If you are transferring your existing number, it may take 3-7 working days due to impacted operations from COVID-19.

  • Exisitng number transfer can take long long time. They say 3-7 days but be prepared for 10+ days. I tried and gave up. Eventually moved to Amaysim and porting was completed in 5 mins. Requested refund from E. Tel.

    • If they are taking a few weeks to port a number over your refund from E. Tel should be almost instantaneous ;-)

  • No 5G support right? I'm guessing 5G is reserved for Optus' $50+ plans

    • Yep, no 5G offered by Etel or with anyone even close to this price point. You'll need to look at Spintel for 5G if you're keen on an Optus reseller. $40p/m for the first six month ($5 discount), unlimited calls, 50gb etc. https://www.spintel.net.au/home/5G-mobile

    • +2

      Dont panic for that.

      As all the non-tech 'randoms' get churned to 5g through passive upgrading, the 4g network will improve as the load decreases.

      When 4g launched it was almost 3 whole years before it reliably outperformed 3g.

      Every peak hour used to drop connections.

      4g at max speed is darn fast… 5g will be cool, but is certainly not an exciting improvement yet. No common app needs to be faster than 1Gbps yet; or even 300mbps if you have a phone which cant combine frequencies.

  • +2

    Just a warning it is a pain to port out from E. Tel because it is classified as a business (Corporate) from Optus to port out you have to do a weird form which they then have to process manually.

  • +2

    Hmm. Think I'll stick to the 120GB Boost I negotiated for $150. Sightly more, but with Telstra 4G

    • Negotiated?

      • Yeah, I told them the deals weren't good, and proposed what I wanted. I got 40gb added if I recharged the 80gb

        • +1

          Negotiated? It’s their standard offer at the moment.

          Get 40GB bonus when you recharge $150 before 12 January! Use in Aus in 12 months, bonus applied automatically. Recharge now bst.st/r Opt out 1800039059

          • @bozbargain: It wasn't for me, I had to ask for it

          • @bozbargain: If I recharge now, dont i lose my previous credit/ remaining time?

            • @spy: I got this message towards the end of my credit expiry (2 weeks before I believe), it wouldn’t surprise me if everyone would get one towards the end of theirs.

    • Benefit of boost is that it uses the entire Telstra network. Wonder if this company uses the entire optus network

  • +4

    For people who needs around 5gb per month, Coles currently has a $99 plan with 60 GB data for 365 days.

    https://colesmobile.com.au/home/left-image/product/5

  • Maybe im a big dumb dumb but where to i enter my number into port? Does this happen after i enter my CC information? Im used to this stuff asking me beforehand

    • +1

      You submit your port request AFTER you sign up and receive the sim card in the mail :)
      You do so via another page on their website.

Login or Join to leave a comment