Before the iPhone 7 is released, I thought it would be interesting to see what prices are like these days for an iPhone 6s 64GB on a 24 month contract. And wow, prices just keep going up, don't they? They seem to be getting more expensive every year! Can't wait to see how more they go up for the iPhone 7.

In this post, I'm going to be comparing the big four Australian telecommunication companies; Optus, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, and Telstra, to see which one offers me the best plan at the lowest cost.

The criteria will be; plan cost, and value between calls, text, and most importantly, data! I am not comparing how supposedly great their coverage is or how bad their customer service is. I am assuming for this that you are in a city / suburban area, so coverage isn't a problem. Also I'm not looking at if the customer wants to upgrade again next year. This will be assuming that you plan to keep the iPhone for 24 months. Also I will not be including any extra benefits like data exclusions to Spotify or a 6 Month Apple Music membership, etc...

First important part to this, is to work out what an iPhone 6s 64GB sells for (brand new from Apple) today. And that is $1,229.00. Over the course of 24 months the price would divide to $51.21 per month.  This is important for when we compare phone payment costs to the plan itself.

First up, lets look at

Optus:

At Optus, I could go on the $84 iPhone plan (a $40 plan plus $44 phone payments) and receive 1GB of Data and Unlimited Calls and Text in Australia. 

Or, their recommended plan of $91 per month ($65 plan, $26 for the iPhone) and receive 3.5GB of Data, Unlimited Calls and Text, and also get 150 minutes of International Calls. 

However, if I buy the iPhone outright from Apple, I could go on a 12 month Optus Sim Only plan, pay $30 per month and get Unlimited Calls and Text and 1.5GB of Data, and only pay the equivalent of $81.21 per month. That's $2.79 cheaper per month ($66.96 over 24 months and the difference of 12,000GB more data).

Or better yet, how about their $40 Sim Only Plan (for 12 months) which'll get me the same Unlimited Calls and Text, but a huge 8GB of data! And 300 minutes of International Calls. Total per month with our outright iPhone 6s payment divided, equals $91.21 per month. Extra 21 cents per month for and extra 4.5GB of data a month? Worth it!

Optus summary: Buy the iPhone outright and get a Sim-Only plan for 12 months! It'll be better value.


Next up, the network that uses the Optus Network, so is pretty much the same as going with Optus;


Virgin Mobile:

At Virgin mobile their cheapest iPhone 6s 64GB plan is $67 ($30 plan plus $37 for phone). But, they only give you $300 worth of calls and a measly 300MB of data. We already have Optus to compare with, so lets look at a higher plan.

$76 per month! Unlimited Calls and Text within Australia and 1GB of Data. This is the equivalent plan to Optus's $84 plan. Which means, Virgin Mobile, the company that uses the Optus Network remember, is $8 cheaper per month. $192 cheaper over the length of your contract, for the same plan!

Lets go even higher, we want to find the equivalent (cost) plan to the Optus $91 plan. And that'd be Virgin mobiles $90 plan. It includes Unlimited Calls and Text within Australia and 6GB of Data! That's 2.5GB more than Optus, per month.

What about their Sim-Only plans? $40 will get you 7GB, Unlimited Calls and Text and $200 worth of standard international calls. Throw in another $10 to get 10GB Data, and $300 of international. Compared to Optus? The Sim Only plans seem a little more worth it from Optus.

Virgin Mobile Summary: If you were to get a iPhone and Plan, Virgin Mobile has cheaper plans and offers better value for your money than Optus.


Vodafone:

Over at Vodafone you can get the iPhone 6s 64GB for $96 per month, which includes "Infinite" standard national calls and text and 6GB Data.  Since this plan is already more expensive with little difference to the Virgin mobile $90 plan - we shall move on!

By the way, their SIM Only plan, less value on Data than Optus.

Vodafone Summary: More expensive than Virgin mobile, however still more Data than Optus gives for at the similar price, unless you go on a SIM only plan from Optus, which then Optus offers a better deal.



Lastly,


Telstra:

Telstra didn't have a great year, with a few network dropouts that lasted hours! Lets see how their plans compare.

On the Telstra Network, they'll give you a iPhone 6s 64GB starting from $95 per month with 1GB Data and $550 "talk time"...

Should I really even bother going on? ...Fine. What do they recommend?

Their "L" plan (I guess that stands for 'large' or it could be 'loser'), includes Unlimited Talk, Text and MMS, and 8GB of data for...

$121 per month.

Go **** yourselves!

Telstra Summary: Stay the **** away from Telstra, unless you want to be ripped off, in my opinion!



Conclusion:

I really hope the Australian telecommunication companies see this post and create some better and more competitive plans for the iPhone 7. And not just use it as an excuse to raise the price even more.

So who won this? Definitely the mobile companies. 'Cause the customers ain't, that's for sure!

But, really, from these calculations, the best deal for a iPhone 6s 64GB and a Plan together (today, September 1st 2016) was with Virgin Mobile on their $76 or $90 plan, depending on how much data you'd like.

But more surprisingly, the best solution would be to buy the iPhone 6s 64GB outright and go on the Optus SIM Only $40 plan for 12 months. It gets you unlimited calls and text, and 8GB of Data for a combine cost equalling $91.21 per month (over 24 months).

My message to the phone companies, firstly, well done for ripping us all off. Now;

To Optus: Why is Virgin Mobile's contract plans cheaper than yours! They use your network! Why should I choose you over Virgin Mobile?

To Virgin Mobile: Well done on offering competitive prices.

To Vodafone: You guys are still around? I thought you went out of business. Lower your prices.

To Telstra: I think I summed up my thoughts on you above, but I don't care how great you think your network coverage is, for someone who lives in city areas, it doesn't matter! I've had no issues with other companies I've used. You are well overpriced! I don't know why anyone would choose to give you money!

For everyone else, thanks for reading, if you liked this piece or maybe learned something, please share! And leave a comment below on which company are you with and why.

TPG, a internet and home phone service provider in Australia. They currently offer a $59.99 monthly plan which contains 'Unlimited Internet Data and a Home Phone Line Rental.' Compared to their competitors prices, TPG would seems like a winner, right? Maybe not.

So here are some things that you should know about before signing up to TPG. First, they offer, in the mentioned plan, ADSL2+ internet. What is ADSL2+? It's internet that runs through your house's phone line. Now, TPG states that they offer speeds of up to 20Mbps, so that sounds good, right? Yes, but unless you live right next to their service tower, don't expect those speeds.

First, lets understand what those speeds mean. ISP's talk in Megabit per second, where your probably more familiar with download speeds in Kilobyte per second. Have you ever downloaded a file and watched the download speed? You've probably seen numbers like 70kb/s up to something like 2,000+ kb/s or somewhere around that, right? Well 20Mbps does not mean 20MB per second (or 20,000kb/s). It's actually very far from that! When a internet service provider says up to 20Mbps, what they actually mean is speeds up to 2,500kb/s. Now, 2,500kb/s is okay, IF you can actually get close to that speed.

Your download speed will vary based on many factors including your location from their towers and ISP's will not want to tell you if their service will be poor in your area while trying to sign you up. If you are not a tech enthusiast between the ages of 15 to 35, you may get lost in all their tech talk and won't understand the numbers or thought to check if you'll get a decent service. ISP's will make you figure that out on your own. So, before signing up to any contracts, ask your neighbors what internet service provider they have and what their speeds are like. A great way of testing your speeds is to use the website speedtest.net



I recently heard from one reader who had a issue with TPG. They saw the deal, they contacted TPG and signed up. TPG did not tell this person what speeds they would be receiving at their location. They just like to use vague terms like up to 20Mbps. Well "up to" means between 0 and a max of 20. And if you're at 1, you are not going to be happy. So, this reader had TPG installed at their home for their family. But, within minutes after activating the service, they realized the mistake they had made by signing up with TPG.

The speeds were extremely slow! Barley reaching between 2-4Mbps, that's 200-400kb/s. They could barley load a webpage, let alone a video. Noway you could use two devices at the same time, many things were timing out just trying to load on one device.

They wanted unlimited internet data so they could stream movies on their Apple TV, especially since a 'video store' is now a nonexistent term in many places these days. But there was no chance of a movie being able to load on this connection. So what good is unlimited internet data when you can't use it?

So the reader contacted TPG and told them about the issues they were having with TPG's service. But TPG did not seem to care at all about the users complaints. Their tech support guy even went as far as saying to the customer that, if you wanted a good internet service, why did you chose us? You should of gone with a better company, one that offers Cable internet, like Optus. So when your company's tech support guy tells you that you've chosen the wrong company, you know that company must be shit!

But after agreeing to that initial contract, it's too late! There's no trial or "cooling-off" period clause in the contract. TPG does't seem to care if you can load a simple YouTube video (even at low quality). Or if your kids can do their homework without waiting forever for a webpage to load. No, TPG would probably say something like, 'Hey, you chose us, that's YOUR mistake!' Yes TPG, you are right, I agree, choosing your company would be a mistake.

So, after one day of barely any internet service, what would be the cost to get out of this loveless relationship? A $350.00 early termination fee. One that TPG won't back down on. The customer didn't want out of the contract early because they didn't want the service anymore, but because the service was unusable for them! You see, TPG doesn't seem care if they can provide a customer with a connection that is actually usable, or if their service is so shit in an area that they make customer want to leave after 5 minutes of their internet being connected. Or about warning a customer who would be in this zone about the realistic speeds they would be receiving. All TPG seems to care about is getting your money, not providing a decent service to their customers. TPG would not admit to being at any fault. They'll blame you for choosing them.

If you were reading this because you were thinking of signing up to TPG and you searched for reviews first, great! You made the right choice to search before you buy! I'll just say, maybe you live next to a TPG tower and you're speeds would be fine. But, maybe you don't. I personally would NOT recommend TPG as a internet provider. They don't seem to care about making a customer happy and satisfied with their service or admitting when they can't provide a decent enough service in your area. They just seem to want your money.

Secondly, if you can get the NBN or Cable internet at your home from a ISP, that is a MUCH better choice over ADSL - just don't go with ADSL internet unless you have no other option. I'd recommend Optus. They are a great company, in my opinion. Some flaws, but they work on it, even if it takes them a while to fix. (More on that maybe another day). Optus are a bit more expensive than TPG, but, hey, I guess you get what you pay for! The reader who mistakenly chose TPG for a day, even got at their location speeds from Optus of 2,500kb/s - that's 5 times more than the best that TPG could provide for them. I believe at the moment you can get Unlimited Broadband and a Home Phone for $75 per month from Optus. They offer speeds of up to 30Mbps on their basic speed pack. Once again, it could vary, so ask around, and ask the sales people what speeds you actually would be receiving on average in your area, not what it would be "up to."
 
You can view Optus Broadband plans, here.

If you've had a similar experience with a Internet Service Provider, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. (Note: Comments only work from Google's Chrome Browser, sorry). And, please share this article to warn others of the dangers of not for surely knowing what service you'd actually get before signing up to a contract.


Edit (add image): 

This apparently is an email address - dumbasses: