The good news about using a mobile phone in Melbourne is that you don’t have to pay for receiving calls—somebody with a brain (not just a wallet) developed that one. However, the drawback is that there isn’t free calling after weeknights and on weekends.

Similar to Canada, you can get a “pay-as-you-go” phone (Aussie for “pre-paid”) as well as a contract. Except that contracts are often 24 months. 12 month contracts don’t really exist.

Say goodbye to feeling rude for sending a text; in Australia, texting is the number one form of communication. As a result, the phones here are MASSIVE!

When I left Canada, flip-phones were all the rage and giant cell phones were on the out. Arriving here, I was shocked, but I’m over it now and a big fan of the larger buttons and screen which allows you to text more readily. Also the advent of Blackberries has probably erased the size issue for many, and texting has become even more attractive across the globe.

Leading Out offers a cell phone connection that gives you the best deal for your needs.

My Experience with Cell Phones:

After extensive research, I went with the cheapest, least committal phone package. At the time this was with Virgin pre-paid. Of course, I’m running through it much more quickly and will switch as soon as it is convenient to the rest of my life. I don’t find the coverage is as good anymore, and I keep getting “network busy” annoying messages every Friday night. I’ll go with either Optus, or Leading Out’s package.

I definitely want to avoid Telstra — whose greed and incompetance are responsible for Australia’s terrible internet strategy:

paying per download??! That defeats the purpose of how we interact with internet!! They obviously don’t get it and likely never will.

Plus, the horror stories I’ve heard about their servicepeople, who make you stay home from work to receive their call to fix your phone–and then never show up!!! I’m over it…

Virgin is new, and never had the monopoly, so they are not to be blamed. Also, Vodaphone makes you pay to recieve voicemail (Virgin and Optus don’t).

Optus has towers comparable to Telestra but without the ego, they offer far better customer service.

Three mobile, I don’t know much about, but there’s probably a reason for that. Checked them out when we first moved here, poor customer service. And few I know have gone with them and stayed.