I’ve been doing a bit of research about phone plans for use in Brisbane, Australia (just had to make that clear for all my international readers), and made this graph of the value to cost ratio of different mobile deals (i.e., divide the value the company gives you by how much you pay). This was created on 4 February 2012, and I’m pretty sure it’s accurate. Also, here’s a link to Live Connected, because they won!
Enjoy!
And for the people who like to see the data, here it is…
| Company and offer | Cost | Value | Value to cost ratio |
| Live Connected $5 | $ 5.00 | $ 100.00 | $ 20.00 |
| Live Connected $8 | $ 8.00 | $ 135.00 | $ 16.88 |
| Live Connected $11 | $ 11.00 | $ 500.00 | $ 45.45 |
| Live Connected $16 | $ 16.00 | $ 650.00 | $ 40.63 |
| TPG $10 | $ 10.00 | $ 100.00 | $ 10.00 |
| TPG $18 | $ 18.00 | $ 550.00 | $ 30.56 |
| Optus $10 | $ 10.00 | $ 60.00 | $ 6.00 |
| Optus $20 | $ 20.00 | $ 140.00 | $ 7.00 |
| Telstra $10 | $ 10.00 | $ 0.00 | $ 0.00 |
| Telstra $20 | $ 20.00 | $ 20.00 | $ 1.00 |
Eighth Worst Blog Ever 
Yeah but what about quality? Do you know about coverage? And I’ve heard some of the minnows have poorer access to 3G connectivity. Look into that, would you.
What do you mean when you say quality? Call quality? They’ve got coverage maps here – http://liveconnected.com.au/index.php/network-coverage/item/brisbane – but they’re using the Optus network, so I’m pretty sure it’ll be exactly the same. I assume that customer support will be different, but I’ll only need to deal with them during set up or not even. I’ll let you know about it – my SIM card’s coming in the mail within the next 1 – 2 business days.
By quality I mean coverage and 3G connectivity. Someone told me, though it’s probably wrong, that a lot of carriers use Optus, but not all have the same access to 3G. So when the servers are all chockers, it’s the lower end carriers that get bumped off.
Hmm… That would explain why it’s so cheap, but would the Optus towers know who was with them and who wasn’t? They’d have to be pretty clever. But as long as it only effects internet speed (not calls or texts), then that’s fine with me. I think coverage should be okay.
Hey, and aren’t you with TPG? Has that been okay for quality etc? I imagine Live Connected would be exactly the same, they just haven’t got popular yet…
Nah I’m with Virgin (which is Optus). Our home internet (ADSL2) is TPG.
So do you reckon you get inferior coverage because you’re using the Optus network but you’re not with Optus? I’m guessing no… And so far, haven’t noticed any difference in call quality with Live Connected.
From my personal usage i am telling everyone i know to steer clear of Liveconnect.
I had a problem with them just hitting my credit card for $100 and when i questioned them they said it was for excess data (i dont have a 3g Smart phone so this was impossible) there attitude was well sorry you have to pay..i took it to the TIO and they stuffed them arround for OVER 2 months and i still to this day have not got my money back…as i said STAY AWAY FROM LIVECONNECTED… YOU WILL BE SORRY THEY WILL NOT NEGOTIATE ITS THERE WAY OR NO WAY
Hmm… that’s interesting. Although I’m not sure you’d do any better with Telstra or Optus, as when I’ve had to deal with them they have exactly the same attitude.
Anyway, I signed up with Live Connected, and the whole process was automatic – no stuff ups at all, and I didn’t have to contact anyone. And the plan I’m on has 1.5GB of data, so there’s no way I could ever go over that amount. So basically, I’m really happy with the service and think it was a great choice. I suppose there’ll be an update if something goes wrong, but it’s all been good so far!