Apologies if this has been covered before. I'm a regular Boost Mobile user. Knowing that Boost has full access to the Telstra network, as opposed to say Woolworths or ALDI, how much better and faster in practice is it, especially in major cities? I'm in Sydney for reference.
Not sure if anyone has tested out both and has any strong opinions.
The only advice I can give is just to try out different providers for a month and pick the best one. Loyalty means squat in these modern times.
This, 100%.
I actually find VF/Kogan to have much faster speeds at my home than Telstra, have to use the latter's VoWIFI to stop calls dropping in some rooms! Even find Northside Brisbane that Telstra slows as kiddies come back from school - must have a lot of Telstra users around where I was testing.
You can test
- Kogan/VF cheap with https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/kogan-mobile-sim-prepaid-starte…
- Telstra wholesale with a cheap Aldi $5 SIM https://www.aldimobile.com.au/collections/payg
- Optus with a cheap Amaysim SIM (they seem to go on promo all the time - there's a freebie expiring June 30 here https://www.amaysim.com.au/plans/mobile-plans/?ref=hpb-eofy-…)
- Boost/Telstra 4G with a Boost SIM, need to go on a $70+ plan if you want to test 5G
I didn't think it got 5g, but full 4g access?
The extra coverage is in places where Optus and Voda don't have any coverage - rural areas.
Coverage in Sydney is identical to other Telstra MVNOs.
I'm in Sydney and admittedly my home is in a terrible coverage spot generally. I recently ported from Boost to Voda and back to get the discount and bonuses. My day with Voda was filled with "you missed a call" notifications; reminded me of why I left them and never want to return.
Yeah, different carriers coverage will vary, but boost has the same towers as ALDI, Telechoice, Woolies and other Telstra resellers in the cities.
Same towers, but not the same antennas on those towers.
The antennas for Telstra/Boost will be prioritised, whereas all the MVNOs will be squished onto a single/dual antenna and will have low-priority connection from the tower to the network.
Sometimes this makes a notable difference, other times its not worth it.
Has volte + vowifi unlike Tesltra Wholesale
Could be wrong but my understanding is basically:
Much better
Reception is head and shoulders better than vodafone and optus for me.
Speed isn't blisteringly fast but adequate.
just waiting for e-sim now.
I can confirm that in Portarlington on the Bellarine Peninsula (VIC) (around 1.5 hrs from Melb CBD) reception is so temperamental unless you're with Telstra/Boost Mobile.
Neither Optus/Vodafone hardly get any signal.. not even to make a call. In 2022 it's disgraceful.
So in my case, Telstra/Boost are my only options unfortunately.
Unless you need rural coverage it’s probably a bit too expensive to be worth it.
Might as well use one of the telcos that provides telstra wholesale coverage. Speeds/reliability are about the same in my experience.
Aldi has 97.9% coverage out of the full Telstra network
so the issue is pretty much whether you are in the 2.1% that isnt covered. If you arent, then it makes no difference, its exactly the same Telstra network being used (5G excepted, of course). Telstra doesnt have an Aldi network and a Boost/Telstra network. Its one and the same
Thats a different question to the one many commentators are answering, which is whether Boost/Telstra has better coverage than Voda or Optus etc - the answer to which is 'it depends on where you live' but 'yes, on the whole, Telstra has better cover especially outside the cities'
I don't know the stats now, but a few years ago, the land are coverage of Full Telstra, versus Optus (which Telstra Wholesale is restricted to roughly match) was 200%.
ie Full Telstra coverage was twice the land areas size of Optus.
In cities probably next to no difference.
Once you get off a major highways is where the differences will be felt.
Added benefit is access Telstra rewards for cheap movie tickets.
They also have visual voicemail for iPhone, not many resellers have that
Belong doesn't even have voicemail
voWifi, voLTE, visual voicemail, 4g full speed
free calls/sms overseas when you have access to wifi/3/4g internet connections
unlimited calls to certain destinations
Personally I have a new phone, having to call via 3g or not having access to volte/vowifi in 2022 is a deal breaker (Kogan, WLW, Aldi, Amaysim…).
I'm actually in the process of looking for a new mobile provider for wifey as she's on Circles and it regularly loses 4G connectivity. It seems it is suggested there is a difference between the Boost Telstra network and the Woolworths Mobile Telstra network… is this true? Because I was about to sign her up to Woolies mobile but if theres a big difference between that and Boost then I might go with the later. Thanks
test both and see which works better for you
How is Moose Mobile https://moosemobile.com.au/ as they are advertising that it uses the full Optus Network. I am thinking of churning from Boost to Moose to save money and don't need overseas calls which is what I have in the current Boost Plan. Apparently Moose also VoLTE and VoWifi - has anyone here used Moose recently and can confirm?
Stick with Boost, simple as that.
Telstra is already killing off capacity on 3G, which is the only way people on 3rd rate networks like Woolworths can make calls.
So avoid them completely, posts getting deleted on WP when this is pointed out.
You do NOT want to be on a network without VoLTE & WiFiFi
Definitely stick with Boost, I live in Sydney South and finds a much stronger signal and less dropouts on Boost compared to any other provider. I was also on Belong at one point and although being Telstra, reception is much worse.
I've also been to Burwood apartments where Optus/Vodafone gets ZERO bars and I could make calls and surf online.
Mind you I'm basing my experience on mobile gaming where latency and dropouts matter a lot. If you're just using for calls then pick whatever I guess, should all make calls ok.
As with everything, YMMV. Supposedly it has the most coverage out of all providers since as you say it is on the full telstra network.
Unless you need wifi call, no reason to stick with them especially with their price hikes. I too have used boost for a while and about a year ago when the did the restructure, I experienced horrible signal and 4g speeds but didn't want to change because I prepaid for the year. Since we were still WFH it had less of an impact. I changed to optus and it's much better now.
The only advice I can give is just to try out different providers for a month and pick the best one. Loyalty means squat in these modern times.