Mobile Virtual Network Operators are nothing new in Australia, but the newest one certainly seems to be offering a good deal. Amaysim (it’s supposed to be pronounced like “amazing”, apparently) has just launched in Australia, and promises contract-free connectivity with all national calls costing 15 cents per minute with no flagfall and SMS messages costing just 12 cents.
The lack of flagfall charges is especially appealing, as is the flat rate of 15 cents per minute to any Australian number on any network. You can also opt for both prepaid and postpaid payment options. The catch is that Amaysim are using Optus’ 3G network, which some would argue is already rather crowded and not helped by MVNO arrangements with companies like Virgin Mobile.
Still, data charged at 5 cents per MB, and available to purchase a 1GB data bolt on to prepaid for $10, the rates are really good. Also welcome is the promise that the company has a locally based customer service centre.
You can get the Amaysim starter SIM card pack for $2 at 7/11 stores, Woolworths, Harvey Norman and Caltex service stations. It sounds like a pretty good deal pricing wise – the question will be whether Optus is up to speed to handle another MVNO using their network.
[Amaysim]
matt
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 11:11 AMsounds great!
Michael
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 11:26 AMIt does sound great. It’s a shame I can’t help be skeptical about it, though.
Gary
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 10:05 PMThe guys who set up amaysim are the same guys who set up simyo in Europe. I used simyo in Germany for many years and in France last year. I thought it was great value and offered excellent customer service.
I would change in a flash if it wasn’t on Optus. I am now with Optus and am SO frustrated by the dropouts, poor reception and receiving my voicemail messages hours and up to 3 days after they were left.
Good luck amaysim!
Simon Reidy
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 11:25 AMYou get what you pay for. I’ll happily continue to pay extra for Telstra’s superior network. Particularly as Optus coverage is a joke in Tasmania.
I could see this being useful for inner city students (where they have decent coverage) and other people on tight budgets though. Best of luck to the company surviving in a cut-throat business.
Timmy Connor
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 12:17 PMI have to agree. I changed to Telstra after Three. I purchased a prepaid Optus sim to test before making the jump to tesltra. The network whilst better than three, was not that great.
I prefer to pay more for better on Telstra.
Aimee
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 11:34 AMCan amaysim go into any pre paid phone or just optus?
Seamus Byrne
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 11:37 AMany phone at all.
Nathan Adams
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 2:51 PMHaha, Techspud. Hard luck Seamus ;-)
Nick Broughall
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 11:41 AMAny unlocked phone…
Seamus Byrne
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 5:42 PMWell, yeah, that’s what I meant… obviously… ummm…
[Grabs coat]
Psy
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 11:43 AMIt’s probably just me, but Telstra is actually cheaper than this.
I buy the $40 prepaid from them which gives around 200 free talk minutes plus 400 free text, plus you can use the $40 you have in the account to buy extra stuff.
I entered 200 minutes and around 60 SMS plus 200mb or so into the Amaysim calculator and came to around $50.
So yeah, no thanks.
Vernon 'Jatsim'
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 12:06 PMdid you pull the data bar all the way across ?, coz its a fixed price….
you actually get 1GB Data for the same price as you would 204MB, try it !
200min + 60sms + 1GB data = $47.16 not $50, ;)
Psy
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 12:18 PMFair enough, but it still remains pricier than Telstra and on a inferior network.
sk
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 1:45 PMThe webite states that the data bar assumes that a 1GB data pack has been added.
ROC
Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 4:52 PMFurther to that you didn’t account for the flag fall costs telstra will charge you as you dont use 200 min in one go.
H3RBI3
Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 2:51 PMThey have unlimited calls unlimited text and 4th of Internet for 39.95 XD I think that’s a tad better
Nav
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 1:33 PMOne thing for sure is, your enquires/issues will not be outsourced. When ever you have a question, problem, anything really, you will be calling the contact centre which is based in Sydney!
wef
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 1:55 PM… isn’t PennyTel just 10.5c/minute (also on the Optus network) … it’s just that their web pages are almost impossible to understand.
Indie
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 1:57 PMWell what about the people who aren’t talking on their mobile constantly.
I used 60mins talk + 15 txt + 1mb data last month that comes to about $12 with these guys.
So long stupid $30 caps and contracts that charge me for stuff I neither want nor need. Even long lasting prepaid is more expensive than that.
Yay for simplicity I say.
Mike
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 7:00 PMThere are plenty of great or better plans for big phone users but very very few for the other end of the market and amaysim is going to cater really well for those. Devices such as alarm systems with SIM cards will be really popular with amaysim.
I have a very similar type plan to this one with slimtel based on the vodafone network and I pay about $15 at the most per month for my phone and my wife’s together. Unfortunately Optus have no coverage where I live and Telstra coverage is touch and go.
Rich
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 7:22 PMI’ve just been to a Caltex store and 2 7-11s listed as SIM suppliers around Fitzroy, Melbourne and not one of the had head of the company. And now the website is down. Poor roll-out, is this what we can look forward to from them?
McOnDaMic
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 9:54 PMMy wife uses the $1 TPG plan
If you talk for less than 30 sec or more than 2 mins per call, your better off on TPG and the SMS and data is also cheaper….
What’s the big deal?
Have I missed something or miscalculated?????
Indie
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 at 1:06 PMWell TPGs call centre is in Malaysia(?)and teh terrible service was why I dumped them as my ISP several years ago.
Amaysim’s call centre is right here in Sydney.
Better service doesn’t seem important until you need it.
Zathras0
Thursday, November 25, 2010 at 8:00 AMI couldn’t resist entering into this discussion.
I was with Three well before the Virgin merger and I was happy with them until they decided to change and roam onto the Telstra network when outside their service area. That when I found out just how bad the big T network was outside metropolitan areas. While I would has a signal, you couldn’t make a successful call on it would last longer than a 30 seconds before a dropped call. Moved to Optus after that, about 2-3 year ago now. Much happier. Customer service also sucked on Three.
Only dropout issues that I’ve had with Optus has been related to the stupid iPhones. Mind you that was happening to others I knew on Vodafone and Telstra.
I would suggest that the Optus network will continue to be upgraded to handle any increase in load.
I give them a go
raelz
Monday, November 29, 2010 at 6:03 PMi am old i hardly ever use my mobile im with optus calls cost a fortune but my 30 dollar recharge lasts for 6 months would amayaysim be any good for me
ROC
Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 4:56 PMyes would be great for you
Raeg
Wednesday, December 8, 2010 at 10:57 AMWell I am with Optus only because most of my family r with Optus & they can call me for free, but I mainly only do txt msg’s & only ring if its important. With Optus a $10 top up card only last for 2 weeks & I get 70 txt msg’s & I might run out before the 2 weeks is up. I am also on a budget so do u think I would be better off going with Amaysim?
Nick Lantzke
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 3:16 AMI am going to buy the Nokia c3 that is currently locked with boost mobile. Boost is part of the Optus Network and so is Amaysim so will my Amaysim Sim work on the new phone?
Lach Pethick
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 8:04 PMI am chasing the same answer as my friend Nick Lantzke here, any help or advice would be appreciated.
kyle gordon reynolds
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 2:46 AMI couldn’t resist entering into this discussion.
Well what about the people who aren’t talking on their mobile constantly.
i suggest that the nokia c3 that is locked with the boost mobile should be compatible with the optus network and Amaysim and that amaysim will be able to work on your new c3 nick although i suggest with my own experience to get the complete graphics card within it…
kyle reynolds
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 3:29 AMi was definatly happy with the virgin merger to, well all until they decided to change and roam onto the Telstra network when outside their service area where metropolitan areas. Not all of the time was in deep anger except when i did have a signal i couldnt even make a succesful call before it dropped out after 30 seconds thats why Amaysim is going to really help me with my daily calls for work references and aslo with my new optus things will be alot easier. thanku amaysim with the new locked boost mobile which is compatible to most phones
Lach Pethick
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 10:26 PMi must object to your opinions here kyle as i think the virgin merger was an improvement when they decided to roam onto the telestra next g network. Amaysim will be heplful but they will use the same merger-cache as Telestra so will not make a noticeable difference in terms of ALPHA-BETA signal 3. On the topic of call dropping and bad reception the telegraph system in place for amaysim will be similar to most others and will not help. Amaysim will be cheaper but not necessarily better, and may not aid your daily work references. The vodafone network uses a special collision declination system to collide particles, increasing velocity of signal transmissions. With all that said I think i will still lean towards amaysim as it is the more sensible and economical decision. I hope i have provided you with some valuable information Kyle.
Ben W
Friday, October 7, 2011 at 8:22 PMWat do u think of Vodafone’s network versus Optus Network?? Especially now that Voda has reportably made some significant improvements?
Nick Lantzke
Friday, December 24, 2010 at 11:50 PMlach and kyle i am not sure that the alpha beta system is the preferd module of transport of messages via amaysim and vodaphone networks after the 3 and vodaphone merge. I however prefet to use my telstra with far superior reception that is locked with the omega 3 form of message tranferasion. this gives me peace of mind when i find it a bona to work with Vodafone on its much more chodier system. thank you for your time.
brenda
Monday, January 10, 2011 at 3:52 PMVodafone had me, 365 days prepaid on my Nokia 1100 (yep!) They changed me without warning to a 30 day plan, no wonder I was stranded phoneless ” no credit” without warning one day.
Try customer service for Voda – if you have all day to hold and converse with a recording.
As from today, AMAYSIM for me!
Mat
Saturday, February 12, 2011 at 10:58 PMAmaysim customer service is a really service.
Thank you Amaysim
Ben W
Friday, October 7, 2011 at 8:28 PMI agree!! Had a great experience!! However, I didn’t have n major problems to sort out. Reception hasn’t been too crash hot soo far. I live in Marayong NSW and it’s a bit patchy and dropped out once.
Can’t beat the price for unlimited though!! Hoping that Iphone4 will come down in price to match!!
Marie Constantinidis
Friday, March 11, 2011 at 9:27 PMcan amaysim go into a locked optus supernova??
Cary
Monday, July 4, 2011 at 7:10 PMHi Guys I am attempting to swap over to Amaysim as I only get about 12 hours per month with Virgin at 60.00 per month and that is just not enough time for the money….and look out if you go over! It then cost 1.00 dollar per minute and there is no warning about it!
Cary
Monday, July 4, 2011 at 7:12 PMI just called Amaysim and had to wait about 10 minutes until they answered the phone however the customer service and explanations I got from a young man were excellent very helpful indeed. So now I have to unlock my phone buy a sim and swap over so will see how we go and will post again!
PJ
Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 11:37 AMHi all, I have been with Amaysim for about 3 months now after having swapped over from Telstra after having been with them since Adam was a boy. I ported 2 mobile numbers over (mine and wife’s) and then dumped my Telstra land line and gave my vodafone wireless broadband the flick as well. We now have just 2 mobile phones and also use them as modems for our internet as Amaysim give us 4GB (EACH)per month data download included as part of our UNLIMITED phone service. The customer service dept’ at Amaysim are fantastic, nothing is too much trouble, they speak a language I understand and have a second to none silly “questions department”. For $39.90 p/m I get ALL my phone calls, SMS and MMS and internet. As I said, my wife is on the same deal and so for less than $80 p/m ($39.90 X 2)we have all our telco needs met .. and NO CONTRACT. Don’t like ‘em, walk away anytime you like…. but you’d be crazy in my opinion. I love this company, if they ever go public, I’m buying shares. These guys are growing their business on the strength of great Australian based service, easy to understand deals at value you for money prices. And NO I do not work for Amaysim. And yes, I have found them to be that good. Give ‘em a go, you’ve got nothing to lose. Cheers.
Rich
Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 6:12 PMIf a phone is locked with optus , you can’t use amaysim with it can you?
kulwinder
Monday, December 19, 2011 at 8:35 PMhi whats call rate from australia to india ,canada & new zealand