Our New Mobile (Cell) Provider

I am once again handing over the reigns to Poopsie to tell you all about our new mobile service provider. Enjoy!

We get great joy in optimising and efficientising as much as we possibly can in our life. In that spirit, as well as not paying for services we really don’t need, I set out to see what was out there in the mobile phone world that would offer us better value for money (and as a side benefit, bring value to others lives as well).

Enter Jeenee Mobile…

Our last phone plans were with Spintel, an Optus reseller, that we’d been with for a number of years. We were happy with them but thought we were probably paying way too much for data and calls we didn’t need. I spent a good few days comparing a bunch of resellers, and thought I had the cheapest one there was, but a Whirlpool thread revealed their customer service was second to all.

A few posters mentioned Jeenee in passing, and off I went down another rabbit hole to see what it was all about.

The search for good mobile data providers in Australia can be like a long walk in the woods.

Initially I was quite skeptical, it seemed too good to be true. Their prices were very good, their plans seemed to be more in keeping with what I thought they should be…and wait for it…They are completely Australian- call centre, tech centre and all.

On top of that, they were originally set up as a not-for-profit by Community Connections Australia, in order to provide no cost mobile communications to people with disabilities. They have since become a for-profit (such an ugly term), mainly so they can grow the support they provide to those in need.

The nuts and bolts…

• They don’t have phones – but if you’re reading this that’s probably not a big deal, because you are not a consumerite that has to have the latest gadget…
• They are on the Optus network, and I regularly get 4G connectivity.

We both have different usage rates for our mobiles, but as an exercise in frugality and disconnection from the constant ‘on’ world we live in, we decided to try and limit our usage from now on (although wi-fi at home kinda negates that).

We both signed up to the Essential Pennywise 18 plan. Due to a special, we get 2GB of data, unlimited SMS, and 400 minutes per month. All Jeenee plans come with free Jeenee 2 Jeenee calls, so now we have both rolled over, no calls to each other are billed. It is worth noting that part of this deal means you have to pay the first three months up front, but it’s definitely worth it! All this for a grand total of $18 a month. What a bargain!

Obviously this plan won’t suit everyone, but I just spent a couple of minutes comparing their plans to the ‘big 2’.

Surprisingly it’s not that cut and dried around the middle of the range. But Jeenee have a couple of aces up their sleeves for those of you that use a ton of data.

• Unlimited talk and text plus 30gb of data for $50
• Unlimited talk and text plus 20gb of data for $45

Both of these are on the Optus 3G network only, but DAMNNNNNN that’s a lot of data for the price (that’s ~75 hours of HD cat videos on YouTube)!

So in wrapping up:

• For us light users, I think $18 is a price I’m happy to pay for the service, and will more than cover our needs.
• The fact that they have a completely Australian operation was a HUGE factor for me, and is something the other two certainly don’t have.
• The fact that they help Australians with disabilities and those in need definitely made it much easier to make the choice.

So while not the cheapest plan out there, it certainly is the best for us and our beliefs.

So that’s it, our mobile accounts price hacked! Are you still slavishly attached to the big 2? Leave a comment and I’ll do my best to talk you out of it…