Providers
There are a number of companies providing mobile phone services to customers across Australia. While most companies offer broadly similar subscription offers for their services, there are minor variations in their package offerings and the price on which they compete with each other. These variations enable users to compare each company’s plan and come to a decision that suit best to them. Leading the list of service providers is Telstra, which is the most popular brand in Australia having the largest number of customer base as well as largest coverage area in the country with its GNext and 3G and GSM networks.
Next to Telstra in the market share comes Optus having over 7 million customer bases. It has four separate mobile phone networks that customers can choose from depending on their location as well as service requirement. The company provides, broadband, home phone, digital TV in addition to the regular services for its mobile customers. Vodafone is another popular brand providing GSM, GPRS and 3G services to its customers. The Globalstar integrated satellite/digital service of Vodafone covers not only 100 per cent areas of the Australian continent but also up to about 200 nautical miles from the mainland. As regards the GSM digital mobile service of Vodafone, it covers 93 per cent of the Australian population.
Apart from these three main service providers in the mobile phone market, there are a number of other companies, such as 3 Mobile that was the first company in Australia to offer 3G services to its customers. Virgin Mobile is quite popular among low end users of mobile phones. Soul, the second biggest data and voice network provider in Australia, it offers users digital TV signals on their mobile phones. Savvytel is another provider that targets prepaid customers with its low rate features. TPG, gotalk, Dodo, rewardmobile, simliciti, Just Prepaid, Think Mobile and SMSPup Mobile are some other providers, which either have their own network or provide bundled plans on some other networks.