Family Is Moving To Australia, need INPUT

[terrantheman]

My SIL & husband w/4 of my sweet nephews & niece are moving to Canberra and the move is a going.  But my SIL is trying to figure out cellular phone service w/international plans that work best.  Suggestions and help is what they need.  Currently they use ATT but maybe there is good networks in Australia?  Any experienced international business men & women here willing to offer some experienced advice please.

[MoeFOH]

As an Aussie, I can only speak about travelling the other way, so I'm no help at all for what's the best US network/Int plan. 

That said, the good oil on the Aussie networks is that there are none. Ha ha... just kidding (well, sort of)... Telstra is the main network here. And their competitors are Optus and Vodafone. Telstra has the best coverage, but probably the poorest customer service (in my opinion). I'm with Optus. Their coverage in regional areas is not as good as Telstra's, but I find that's not really an issue for me (I live in Brisbane), and their overall service is way better (again, just my experience). 

Not sure if any of that helps at all, but that's my two-bob's worth. : )

[Fuzz]

I was with both Telstra and Optus. You can get a good package for $50/month (12 or 24 month plan, with or without a new phone, slight discount if you bring your own phone to the plan). Both Telstra and Optus (plus Voda) will offer either credits for international calls, or free calls to certain countries. Suggest you check their websites to see with plan suits you best.

I'm currently using Optus Business plan $50/month, get free calls to mobiles in US/UK/Thailand/Malaysia plus a bunch of others.All local calls to landlines and mobiles are free, so are 1300 and 13 numbers, plus 8Gb/month of data. If you get the plans on the one bill, you can share the data amongst all the phones.

[El Presidente]

I am on an Optus Business plan. US phonecalls are free. 

Negotiate hard upfront and you will get free calls home.