Notes on buying an iPhone

As much as I’ve whined about Optus’ paltry data plans, they’re the best things going in this, the arse end of the world. Much of the buying public seems to agree. Vodafone and Telstra shops next door to the Optus shop I was at were pretty empty.

I am now an Optus customer. So far, I’ve been with Vodafone, AAPT, Vodafone again and now Optus. I also have a 3 MobileBroadband card.

I started a contract for a 16gb iPhone Friday afternoon. I would have been able to walk away with an 8gb model if I wanted to. The 16gb models sold out instantly in most Optus stores. A small number of stores still had 8gb models, but 16gb seemed to be sold out pretty much everywhere.

Big upside for Optus here. I think they’re gaining a lot of new activations because of their relatively aggressive iPhone plan pricing. In just talking with people in the shops, more than half of the people getting iPhones with Optus are churning from another provider. What’s more, their plans have a nice deal where you’re allowed free 5-minute calls to other mobile numbers within the same account. Because of this, I’m bringing the other two mobiles in my family along with us – they were prepaid on Vodafone, and now they will be on Optus caps. I don’t think I’m unique in this regard either.

As an aside, I learnt that a 3G USIM is backwards compatible with 2G phones. I put the new Optus USIM into my old Siemens S55, and it’s working fine. Reception in my house is better than Vodafone was (no surprise there).