Translate your mobile phone plan

Price comparison site WhistleOut has generously sifted through the many mobile phone plans offered by Australian telcos and come up with this useful infographic detailing the actual data and call minutes you get, along with the price. “We did this because we know that in their report in May, Reconnecting the Customer the Australian Communication and Media Authority said 'it is virtually impossible for anyone to compare mobile phone plans.'”

Too right it is. Barring a handful of outliers (that $39.90 Amaysim deal looks like a bargain), there is a reasonably strong relationship between cost paid and services received.

There is one factor that this infographic doesn't take into account – while it doesn't include SMS charges, that's the easiest component of the mobile plan, so it's not really an oversight. The quality of coverage, quite difficult to measure, is the most crucial factor once you've got the customer to agree to your price regime. Vodafone, which has a plan as low as $19 a month, will testify to that.