Right, I think it’s probably time to bring this guide in to land.
Reasons are mostly that I can’t be bothered updating it anymore, and I suspect we’re going to see a ‘thinning of the herd’ with the mobile market. Whistleout and Finder and the like also have ‘mobile plan comparison’ services, and there’s no point competing with the professionals :)
A few golden rules and lessons I’ve learnt are:
- If you’re planning on switching networks, try before you buy. Prepaid starter packs for each network (and even many MVNOs) are cheap enough that it’s worth spending $10-30 (even activated with a different number) to test coverage/data speeds before committing.
- Consider prepaid. Even though many big carriers continue to treat prepaid and/or MVNO customers as a second-class citizen (no auto-recharge on Vodafone prepaid, no VoLTE for Optus prepaid customers, and limited coverage for almost all Telstra MVNOs), the freedom to change providers if you need is worthwhile. Auto-recharge (where available) makes the service fairly seamless. I say this as someone who changed jobs with three months left on a Telstra contract… and the Telstra reception at my new workplace was very poor. Not that I’ve always followed this, I’m mid-way through a 365 day Kogan Mobile recharge :)
- Be aware of any fees, and be prepared to pay a fair price for your service. Some of the MVNOs have fees that other providers don’t, so take these into calculation if you’re comparing services. Read the fine print/the CIS.
- How much data/calls do you actually need? Most people don’t need some of the data quotas on offer unless they’re tethering and using it as their home internet as well.
- Do the maths. If you’re considering a contract phone including a new handset, do the maths and break down the plan and phone separately to work out if it’s a good deal (especially compared to buying outright and buying a service separately). Be aware that prices change and situations change (see my earlier point about freedom to change) before locking in.
- If access to mobile phone service is critical (eg: if it's a life or death matter), consider carrying two phones, ideally on different networks (or a satellite phone if you are going to a remote area). Murphy's law suggests that the moment you smash your phone or the network shits itself is when you'll need it most.
With phones, some tips are the following:
- A phone should be able to last for longer than the two year contract they’re originally sold under. Although this is of course dependent on software updates (especially security updates for Androids, or iOS updates for iPhones), which in part is due to the age of the phone. If you originally bought a fancy device on contract, if it still works, maybe keep it when your contract finished and switch to SIM-only rather than buying a new device. It should be easy to get another year or two from the device (or more). This is especially applicable to iPhone users due to how long Apple provides iOS updates. My brother's using an old iPhone 5S and even it's getting the next iOS version later this year.
- You probably don’t need the latest and greatest. Especially in Android land, the budget-mid range phones ($250-400) offer spectacular value for money nowadays, as do the older model flagships (especially used). Is a Galaxy Note 9 or iPhone X really worth spending $1500+ when a phone of a quarter or fifth of the price is generally fine? Tiny Details Exaggeration Syndrome applies here.
- Consider used/refurbished. There’s a number of sellers on eBay that sell refurbished devices or on-sell devices sold to companies like Mobile Monster, and there’s some decent deals (first-gen Google Pixels are currently available in good condition for around $250-300). There’s definitely environmental benefits from reusing a device rather than buying new. However, be prepared to have little/no warranty through the OEM (the seller itself may have a short warranty), and budget for a battery replacement sooner or later. I don’t know if you can take iPhones purchased this way to the Genius Bar for service/repair, especially if the previous owner had repaired the phone using third-party parts. Again, there’s a small element of risk there. Obviously an older or lower end device may not get the same amount of software support (especially with regard to OS updates, and in particular non-Pixel Androids (or non-Android One devices)).
- The easier a device is to repair, the better. Too many phone companies are making it more and more difficult to repair their phones. User replaceable batteries seem to have gone the way of the dodo, but unfortunately they’re now making it hard to even get inside the phones by gluing down the screens to the chassis rather than securing it with screws, and requiring the screen be removed to access the battery. My HTC 10 is particularly bad there, to the point where I outsourced the battery replacement. Maybe have a look at iFixit guides or YouTube to get a sense of what’s required to replace a screen or a battery.
- Get an unlocked device that supports all networks. We don’t have the CDMA and GSM clusterfuck that the US carriers have (as ours are all GSM based), or the same amount of network-proprietary stuff, so fortunately most phones can be used on all three carriers. This is where being knowledgeable of what 3G and 4G bands your phone supports can be beneficial. Many prepaid phones are locked, and some are designed to only support the host carrier’s network bands. The former can usually be unlocked for a fee (either through the carrier or separately), but the latter means you’re generally stuck with that carrier or MVNOs using that carrier. The carrier does usually subsidise a prepaid device, so using it on that carrier for a while before unlocking is only fair. However, vendor lock-in is not Mustachian. :)
- Please don’t lease a phone. That’s just going to put one on the expensive upgrade treadmill.
- We managed just fine before fancy smartphones arrived. It’s all optional luxuries, and remember what MMM said about luxury? :)
Peace *drops microphone*