Australians love to complain about the cost of phone contracts, but on a global scale we might not be doing so badly. A comparison of plans for the recently launched Galaxy S III suggests that compared to the UK, USA and New Zealand, Australian offers are fairly competitive.
We rounded up the available deals for the Galaxy S III in a Planhacker table when it first launched. With four carriers to choose from, there are certainly plenty of options. An evaluation of those plans against options offered overseas, carried out by comparison site WhistleOut, suggests that we’re not suffering too badly. According to director Cameron Craig:
Technology prices are known to be far cheaper in the USA, however the Galaxy S3 shows that to be false for mobile phones on service plans. The UK remains one of the most competitive mobile phone markets in terms of pricing on the leading handsets, but Australia is not far behind.
Directly comparing plans is a fraught activity — US customers pay to receive calls, for example, and often pay a partial up-front price and a partial monthly subsidy, so it’s hard to make an absolute comparison. WhistleOut looked at two plans (one with 250MB of data and 400 call minutes, and one with unlimited calls and 500MB of data). 500MB is on the low side for data allowances, and ‘call minutes’ means something entirely different when you’re paying for every single call. However, with the US coming out bottom of the rankings, suffering envy for our stateside cousins seems unwise.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.