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Can you hear me now?

By Bobbi-Jo // 30 April 2010 // Comments: 0 // Related Categories: Best Backpacker Job

Believe it or not, telecommunications when you’re a backpacker are not just limited to calling mom and dad when you’ve run out of money.

(Hi, mom and dad!)

If you’re part of the majority of backpackers or flashpackers milling up and down the east coast of Australia, chances are you’ve either brought a cell phone from home or, more likely, purchased a cheap cell phone with a pre-paid SIM card upon your arrival Down Under.

Either way, your pre-paid phone, regardless of carrier, is your connection to emergency services most importantly, but also to fellow backpackers you want to keep in touch with as you make your way around the country, and it's also an alternative to relying on public telephones and hostel travel desks to make booking arrangements.

Now, just because the tiny pieces of cardboard that make up a SIM card all look the same, does not mean that all carriers are created equal.

When I was traveling through the UK, I vented more than a few times about the mean things I’d do to the CEO of Orange UK if I ever found myself alone in a room with him. Even when you have a pre-paid SIM card, things like dropped calls, coverage range, and basic customer service are important. These are three things that Orange couldn’t bring itself to master, so I did a little bit more checking around when I got to Australia, and was told that Vodafone was the way to go.

In fairness, in New South Wales, Vodafone’s coverage is excellent. Their customer service left something to be desired, and while I did have hiccups immediately upon trying to set up my service, within 48 hours I had a fully functioning iPhone (brought from home, unlocked myself) and I was ready to fire away. Making my way up the coast of NSW rarely found me in an area in which I didn’t have at least two bars of signal strength, and that’s good enough for me.

As I crossed the border into Queensland, using the gateway of the beautiful little city of Coolangatta, I was met with a welcome package from VIP Backpackers. Since they’re one of the sponsors of this trip, they graciously hooked me up with a VIP Member Packet, which included a SIM card for Optus Mobile, packed with $50 of credit upon activation. True confession: I had never heard of Optus. Truer confession: I was too lazy to find an earring with which to pop out the SIM card that was currently in my phone and replace it. And why would I? I still had great coverage and it would just add to the graveyard of SIM cards that I’ve purchased while traveling that are collecting dust in my wallet.

So up I went, through Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Mooloolaba, Noosa. Two bars minimum and living the dream.

Until. Agnes Waters and 1770.

These are small towns. So when I rocked up, I wasn’t surprised to find myself in a dead zone. But as Day 2 in Agnes Waters came to an end and I still hadn’t found even the tiniest corner of the hostel on which I could stand on a chair with a hat made of tin foil on my head and find a signal, I finally began to curse the CEO of Vodafone for not realizing that people in Agnes Waters needed coverage, too.

Now, you’re backpacking, you say. Live in the moment, forget the phone, and take in what’s around you.

And you’d be absolutely correct if a few things weren’t true: I’m a girl traveling in an English speaking country, yes, but a foreign one all the same - so the ability to dial "000" if something were to happen is essential; by nature of the trip, I’m constantly calling and expecting calls from hostel owners to confirm booking arrangements; I like to keep in touch with the interesting people I meet along the way.

Having the dreaded “No Service” warning pop up when you take all these things to be true is beyond frustrating. And from what other backpackers were telling me, it was only going to get worse. For some reason, Agnes Waters represented some invisible line on the playground of mobile service providers that Vodafone either wasn’t able or wasn’t willing to cross. My only options at that point were to either employ a small army of carrier pigeons, master the art of smoke signals, or swap out my SIM card for one made by a carrier that has coverage everywhere, not just NSW.

Switching carriers has always been a painful experience for me. Dealing with phone company representatives is just about as fun as getting your teeth pulled, but I was pleasantly surprised with my experience with Optus. Not only was everything fully automated online - meaning I didn’t have to deal with an annoying prompt on the phone that insists I speak instead of punching in clear signals - the Optus/VIP site even let me recharge my mobile with my US credit card, something that Vodafone does not (you’re required to jump through a hoop that includes PayPal and time out of your life that you’ll never get back). The obvious selling point for me was that, even with a pre-paid service, I’d be able to migrate the cell number I already had. This meant that I didn’t have to update my contacts with a new number, and that if that cute backpacker from a few cities back ever decided to text me, my number would still work.

(Hi, cute backpacker!)

There are obviously still places that I can’t get a signal, Queensland has a lot of open road between its cities. But I knew I made the right decision to switch over a few days ago. On a sailboat in the middle of the ocean, sandwiched between two of the Whitsunday Islands, and I picked up my phone to check the time to find not one, not two or three, but four full bars of signal strength smiling back at me and letting me know that if I wanted to make a call, I’d totally be able to.

Thanks, Optus!

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Many special thanks to VIP Backpackers for being our gracious hosts throughout this trip! In addition to your Optus SIM, you can also receive amazing discounts on heaps of backpacker activities with VIP Membership!