The good news is that these cons will only improve as more providers jump on board. And once they do, you can say goodbye to these things for good.

Aus eSIM adoption has picked up the past few years, and 23 providers now use the tech

There are some benefits too. Set up is faster, it's better for the environment, and there is less down time when switching plans. But you’re still limited to less telcos, and switching to a new phone can be fiddly

The report points out that faster speeds tend to come from relatively small countries. Each of the top 5 countries account for less than 1% of Starlink users, and Australia only accounts for 4.1%. Chances are there is less congestion, allowing for better performance.

Still though, a win is a win.

The top median download speed in Q3 of 2025 clocked in at 187.3Mbps in Latvia. Australia’s speed was 167.5Mbps, beating out the Americas, Africa, and most of Europe and Asia.
We also have some of the lowest latency, getting as low as 38ms.

Give small providers a chance.
Sticking with Telstra, Optus, or Vodafone will cost you more than trying a smaller provider. Find out what network you want to be with and research MVNOs using the same infrastructure for cheaper mobile plans. Ditto for NBN.

Don’t be scared of six month discounts.
Swapping providers can be annoying, but so is paying full price. A couple of phone calls to your telco, twice a year is worth the savings.

Buying your phone on a plan is wasting your money.
SIM plans connected to your phone repayments are usually triple the cost of a cheap SIM-only plan. Get a repayment plan directly from Apple or Samsung, or buy your phone outright if you can afford it.

So sure, for some people 5G internet might suck, but for a lot of others it is the best NBN alternative out there.

For anyone on FTTB, or FTTN, 5G home internet is a more… well rounded option.
FTTB and FTTN cap out at 100Mbps download.
You can get an NBN 100 plan for $65/mth, or a 5G plan with 100Mbps speeds for $60/mth
Or you could get an NBN 50 plan for $65/mth, or a 5G plan with 50Mbps speeds for $50/mth

With the new NBN speed tiers, 5G home internet plans can look flat.
Compared to NBN, the prices are higher, and the speeds are slower.
But that is only if you’ve got an NBN connection that can handle NBN 500.

As a teenager of the early 00s, I am partial to a flip phone, but Folds are currently far more popular in Australia. On our site double the amount of clicks go to Foldable phones than to Flippable ones.
But which one would you pick?

While there is no guarantee the Flip will actually launch, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reckons Apple is betting on success, assuming that customers will want different shapes and sizes once they get a taste of the iPhone Fold.

As an example, you can buy a $999 Airpods Pro Max for 412,800 points. That puts the value of a point at 0.25 cents instead. But, you also would have had to spend around $41,000 on Telstra plans. And at that point, maybe it is better to just buy the Airpods.

It isn’t the worst option, in fact it is pretty practical, but if you’re looking to points max then you’ll be better off heading to the Telstra Rewards store for gadgets instead.

Each $1 spent equals 10 points, so to get the $30 off you need to spend at least $2,530 first. That values 1 Telstra point to about 0.12 cents for that deal, or a slightly better 0.19 cents for the yearly discounts.

This should work on all Apple Watches from Series 9 and Ultra 2 or newer. Just make sure your software is up to date on your watch and connected iPhone.

It works by using the heart rate sensor to analyse how the blood vessels respond to the heart beat.

Data is collected over 30 days, and if the Apple Watch detects hypertension - or high blood pressure - it will push a notification urging users to see a doctor.