Getting Information for Aussie Sim Card via Twitter and QIK!

On Twitter, I asked if I could use an Aussie Sim card in my US Nokia N95 to stream QIK.  Steve Garfield pinged @broy, qik co-founder who gave me a brief tweet.  Yes I can!

I had more questions, so I blogged them and did a QIK video and posted here.  @broy expanded in the comments.

Now, to find the best sim card deal and the Nokia N95 users in Australia.    I found Silk Charm via a BlogHer colleague via email and tweeted her and she responded.   She's a QIK user too!   She tweeted my message out to her network.

My questions are:

• Where is the best place to purchase an Aussie sim card upon my arrival in Brisbane on Sunday, May 18th at 6:00 am jetlagged and needing it for the next morning?

• What are my plan options?  I want to get phone and data access for that week.  What is the best deal? How much will it cost?

Comments

[Nick Cowie]

you a few alternatives

telstra is fast, expensive, coverage outside the major cities (if you do the tourist thing), don't know if your N95 can use telstra frquency 850Mhz? cost prepaid data is 200Mb for $60Aud

All the other networks Vodafone, 3 (hutchinson), Optus use the upper end (1800 - 2100Mhz) as the rest of the world.

Vodafone prepaid mobile data is $1Aud for 5 minutes. Do not know if the others do prepaid data.

If you can get a post paid contract with a carrier (don't know if they will do that with a non resident) I would suggest 3. For a N95, you can get a call cap that suits you, and mobile data in 4 different monthly packs, 100mb for $12aud to 2Gb for $40aud that include Skype time in addition to that bandwidth.

The 3 site is http://www.three.com.au/ the data plans for phones can be found under Xseries and you can use their contact form to ask them if you can get a contract (which you end just before you leave Oz).

3 are probably the cheapest (though Vodafone and Virgin are competitive now) all have good coverage in major Oz cities. The downside of 3 is having to deal with their indian call centre (staff quality/knowledge varies dramatically).

[Bhaskar @ Qik]

@kanter some data points on prices from Optus and Telstra.

Optus: http://personal.optus.com.au/web/ocaportal.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Template_wRHS&FP=/personal/mobile/3gmobile/3grates&site=personal

Telstra: http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/plans/browsing_packs.html

[steve Garfield]

Hi Beth,

Great write up on QIK and Twitter!

Do you need the SIM card for a presentation the next morning? If so, how about finding out if the location had WiFi?

That would be best.
-Steve

[Beth Kanter]

@steve - thanks for that - also asking, but wanted back up .. in case the wifi flakes out and I'm traveling around and want to be able to send qiks home to Walter and kids .. video post cards.

From: Ramesh Nadan
To: Bhaskar Roy
Subject: Re: Help?

With regards to the SIM and a data plan, here are some options...

http://www.three.com.au/threestore/prepaidmobiles.xhtml

https://www.virginmobile.com.au/shop/default.aspx?campaign=paidsearch
(This has the SIM option only)

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If you can get a post paid contract with a carrier (don't know if they will do that with a non resident) I would suggest 3.

Daniel

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If you can get a post paid contract with a carrier (don't know if they will do that with a non resident) I would suggest 3.