Mobile phones

In Australia, cellphones - or mobiles, as they are referred to here - are everywhere. Walking down the street, sitting on the train, waiting in line: people are jabbering on their mobiles or playing with them. Mobiles come in every shape, size, color; with cameras, radios, PDAs, music players: they sing, they dance, they slice and blow dry.

One thing that easily rivals the diversity of mobile phones is the diversity of service plans. Would you like prepaid or a service contract? Would you like to pay

10 cents a minute with a 25 cent call connection fee, and 25 cents for text messages? Or do you prefer 5 cents a minute in network, 25 cents a minute out of network, 5 cent text messages in network and 25 cents to others? Would you like the credits to expire in 30 days, or would you take more expensive call rates for a longer expiry period? Or would you like to pay $30 a month and get $100 in credits? Maybe $45 a month for $200 credit? What if voicemail was free? But the call connection fee went up? Are you confused yet?

Here's the fun part: all these plans are from just one service provider. We had a choice of Telstra (the former government monopoly), Optus (the biggest competitor), Vodafone, Virgin Mobile, 3 (also known as Orange in some countries), and countless other smaller providers. Each offered different plans, with different rates, perks, connection fees, caps, and different phones. What a nightmare...

Pictures: Shami pondering plans offered by Optus, and our new all-singing, all-dancing, 3G-capable Sony Ericsson phones from Vodafone, lying on top of our plan comparison worksheet. Special thanks to Sean, who was a huge help in figuring out some of this. So you can call us, or send us SMS, at our consecutive phone numbers. Yay!