Which Iphone Plan in Australia is the best?

This one question  is asked numerous times every minute of everyday in Australia and so far no one seems to have come close to assessing the many options out there and coming to a definitive conclusion. It seemed that, for once, I would have to do my own research in this area and my results proved very interesting. I am not about to say who does offer the best plan for everyone here, because everyone has different needs but this post will hopefully give you an insight into what is on offer from Australia's major carriers and eBay (you cannot leave that one out!), and what suits a customer with my kind of wants and needs. So like all good analyses I will break this down into Customer Profile, Minimum requirements of a plan, offers available within my parameters and finally my Conclusions and results.

Customer Profile

As a mobile phone user I use my phone moderately, mostly using it to have conversions with friends and family, overall spending approximately 10-20mins daily. Furthermore most of this is to my husband, which due to our current phone plan, I have free calls to. I am not a huge sms fan, as even with my Nokia e61 (with full qwerty keyboard) I find the process laborious and too time consuming. My main interest in owning an iphone is actually the browsing capabilities. Since I spend nearly all my time near a computer I will only be browsing occasionally on the bus or at lunch etc. I already have a wireless broadband plan and rarely go anywhere near a 1GB on that. 

My position is somewhat complicated by the fact that I am currently in a plan that still has another 1yr in it. Furthermore because of my small business needs I don't want to move from my current provider, Telstra(whose plans are less then fair but their coverage is excellent) for my phone calls because of the free phone calls between my partner and myself (he is unlikely to be getting an iphone anytime soon).  However I see no problem in getting an iphone with another carrier that I will use almost exclusively for browsing and keeping my current phone for most of my phone calls. 

Minimum requirements 

So to find the ultimate plan for myself I set the following parameters as the minimum in a plan:

• 1gb of data
• some included phone calls
• decent coverage in the metro area

That's it.

Investigation on Offers Available

Well, there is a lot out there between the major carriers, so I investigated Telstra, Virgin, Vodaphone, Optus, 3, Telstra and also the option of using eBay to buy a phone outright.

Vodafone

To get my 1GB of Data allowance I had to move upto the $169 per month plan. Which, over the course fo a 24 month contract would cost $4,056 for the 8GB phone and  $4145  to get the 16GB version (including an extra $89 for the phone outright). This would include an impressive $1200 call credit and my minimum 1GB Data. But considering I don't really need that much call time it does seem a bit of expensive over kill in my case.  

Optus

In Optus to meet my minimum requirements the best plan was The Yes Timeless Plan which is a total of $2,734.8 @ 113.95 Per month for 24 months, unlimited standard voice calls to any network within Australia - local, national and GSM mobiles and unlimited standard national text to any network. Included mobile internet data Value 1GB + 200MB with the $14.95 Mobile Internet Pack (cannot seem to seperate these two). It doesn't seem to matter whether you get the 8GB or 16GB in this case it costs the same.  

Its an interesting plan I have to say and quite tantalising, much cheaper than Vodafone over-all and more than meeting my minimum requirements. 

Telstra

 With Telstra to get the data I want I would have to pay an extra $89 a month on top of any normal plan to get 1G.  So, lets say I wanted a half decent call pack for my needs I should probably choose the $60 plan for 24 months. All in all the cost is $2136 for the 1GB DATA + $1499 for $60 plan with a a$59 upfront cost included = a grand total of $3635 for the 8GB and $3755 for the 16GB. Cheaper than Vodafone but, considering the call plans, far less value for money. 

Virgin
 One of the lesser players who use the Optus Network. They offer a $70 plan with their iphones that gives $520 worth of calls and  1GB of data. For the 8GB this comes to a $1680 total and for the 16GB $1776.00 total (includes the $4 extra per month paid for the phone). Actually looking quite attractive at the moment.

Buying Outright and going on Three

Three currently does not sell the iphone but they will give you a starter sim for one. Their $49 plan with $350 worth of calls and 1Gb of data fitted my requirements plus $300 credit on your account. Buying a 8GB unlocked phone will cost about a $1000 (buying off eBay or Telstra) and a 16GB about the $1400 (you could get it a couple of hundred lower but this is a worse case scenario). Add the cost of the 3 plan this comes to a total of  $1876   for the 8GB and $2276 for the 16GB (remembering the $300 credit).  Funnily enough not bad but not the best course of action it seems.

Conclusion

So the winner in my case seems to be Virgin, followed by Three, followed by Optus, Vodafone and Telstra (Vodafone was more expensive but far greater value for money). If it weren't for the fact I was already in a plan I would probably think seriously about getting the Optus deal. Even buying the phone outright and sticking my current sim in it and paying Telstra for a data pack doesn't work out as well!

If you already have a fanastic plan then buying outright and sticking your sim in isn't a bad deal, but Virgin by far offers a great deal for many customers. So, thanks to my love of huge handbag, I have no problems getting an iphone and sticking with my current brick, especially considerign my savings.