It was only last month that Virgin Mobile increased the data allowances on its postpaid plans. It is now offering additional data on its more expensive contract plans -- but deciphering what has actually happened is needlessly tricky.

Plans where you can share data amongst multiple people in your family or workplace are the most notable trend in the Australian mobile space this year. Optus and Vodafone already offer them, and now Telstra is jumping on the bandwagon with its new Go Mobile plans. Are they good value? Planhacker has crunched the numbers.

If you're signing up for a new mobile phone contract and you're not being offered some sort of streaming service subscription, you're doing it wrong. Vodafone is now offering Stan subscriptions to customers on its postpaid Red plans.

Optus is boosting its mobile data allowance for new postpaid customers, including a generous 10GB per month on a $100 plan (up from 3GB). In addition, a new sharing option has been introduced that allows families to combine separate plans into one bill with data allowances shared across all devices. Optus has also added unlimited voice calls and text messages to all post-paid mobile plans. Here's a look at what's different.

One of the most popular offers from long-departed MVNO Crazy John's was its offering of shared plans, where data and calling allowances were split between a couple or across a family. Vodafone (which bought out and killed off Crazy John's) has now said it plans to reintroduce shared plans "soon".

If you have a lot of friends and family overseas, this might be tempting: Optus has beefed up its postpaid/contract My Plan Plus plans to include a reasonably generous helping of overseas texting and calling credit.

Vodafone's $5 a day roaming option is one of the better choices if you're travelling overseas and want to keep your phone number. If you're on one of Vodafone's more expensive Red plans, you now won't have to pay that $5 daily fee to use it.

Telstra has always had stupidly expensive deals for roaming data and overseas calls on mobile plans. Do its new International Travel passes -- which incorporate a bundle of options for a fixed period -- improve that situation? Yes, but you can still do better.

Optus has revamped its insurance offering, replacing what was previously a messy system with a flat-rate $13 a month deal -- but there are still some catches. Here's what you need to know.

1800 and 13 numbers are often promoted as "freecall", but that isn't necessarily the case if you're calling from a mobile. Telstra has reduced the confusion for its customers a little by making calls to 1800 numbers free from all its mobile plans, both prepaid and postpaid.

Anyone who wanted to pre-order an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus ahead of last week's launch didn't just have to grapple with sites that constantly crashed, a shortage of models and a sense of unhelpful panic. They also had to deal with phone plans that are confusing, inconsistent and constantly changing.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus can be pre-ordered now, and go on general sale from Friday 19 September. If you're planning to buy on contract, we've rounded up every single one of the offers from Telstra, Vodafone, Virgin Mobile and Optus in an interactive spreadsheet and a series of tables so you can easily compare the total cost and features and choose the one that's ideal for you.

With new phones galore about to hit the market (iPhone 6, Galaxy Note 4 and Edge, Experia Z3, Moto X for starters), many people will be signing up for a new phone contract between now and Christmas. We've rounded up all the current contract offers from the major providers so you can compare them and choose the best for your needs.

Hey Lifehacker, I just learned that Vodafone plan to stop offering all Crazy Johns plans in September. I've been offered a new deal but it's nowhere near as good as the shared plan I have currently. Nothing Vodafone offers that is incentive enough to switch and go on a contract. But if I don't change before the switch-off, will I be "rolled over" automatically?

If you don't carefully track your data usage, you can easily end up paying for a phone plan that has more data than you actually need. Vodafone is offering a workaround of sorts with its new Data Workout option, which lets you essentially use unlimited data for the first two months so you can calculate your needs.

Choosing a mobile phone plan can be fiddly and time-consuming. US research firm Tarifica is now assigning scores to Australian mobile plans to determine which ones offer the best value, but frankly we're sceptical about how useful that is.

Not only does paying for global roaming mean you are often ripped off, it can be very confusing trying to work out what rates you'll be charged based on your destination. As of 24 March, Telstra will be making its rates a little less confusing -- but it's still a very expensive way to stay in touch on the road, especially when using data.

The Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code means that phone companies have to be relatively honest about what a given mobile service costs you, but that doesn't mean they won't try and wring money out of you in other ways. Here are five examples of how phone companies can be sneaky with their charges.

Hi Lifehacker, I'm looking to get a 4G plan for my mobile phone. I'm currently with Aldi Mobile but have just bought the Nexus 5 and so I want to shift to a 4G plan.