Get your data working in 2 minutes
New SIM but no internet? Pick your provider below for the exact Access Point Name settings, plus step-by-step instructions for iPhone and Android.
Telstra
Telstra Internettelstra.iphnoneInternet & MMSLeave fields blank if they're empty here. Most providers only need the APN name. Username, password and other fields can stay empty unless shown.
How to enter these on iPhone
- 1Open Settings → Mobile Service → Mobile Data Network.
- 2Under Mobile Data, enter the APN shown above. Leave username and password blank unless shown.
- 3Scroll to MMS and enter the APN again if you send picture messages.
- 4Go back, toggle Mobile Data off and on, then restart your iPhone.
See how we confirm these settings on our How We Test page.
What an APN actually is
APN stands for Access Point Name. It's the address your phone uses to find your telco's mobile data doorway. Enter the wrong address, or leave it blank, and your phone knocks on a door that never opens.
That explains the symptom people find so confusing: full bars, a 4G or 5G icon sitting there looking healthy, and nothing loads. Calls and texts keep working because they run over a different system entirely. Only data breaks.
On most modern phones you will never touch this. Insert a SIM and the network usually pushes the right APN over the air within a minute. Typing one in by hand is the fallback for when that handoff fails, which happens most often with budget SIMs, refurbished handsets, and phones bought overseas.
Why the right APN matters
A wrong APN doesn't degrade your connection, it removes it. Mobile data either works or it doesn't, and picture messaging fails the same way if the MMS fields are wrong. There's no partial credit here, which is the good news: when you fix it, you know immediately.
It also means a wrong value published on a page like this one is worse than no value at all. That's why every provider's settings above carry the date we last checked them against the provider's own documentation, and why the ones we haven't confirmed say so instead of guessing. Our verification method explains what that date means.
The types of APN you'll see in Australia
Two jobs, sometimes two separate entries. The internet APNis the one that carries your mobile data, and it's the only field that matters if browsing is broken. The MMS settings (MMSC, MMS proxy and MMS port) exist purely for picture messaging, and you can leave them alone unless MMS specifically is failing.
There are only three mobile networks in Australia, and most budget brands inherit an APN pattern from whichever one they resell. That's useful when your provider isn't listed above: check whose network it runs on in the providers directory, though always prefer the exact value your own provider publishes over a network-wide guess.
How to change your APN
Try the lazy fix first
Before you type anything, restart the phone. Genuinely, it works more often than it has any right to.
If data is still dead, reset your network settings. That clears out a stale or half-configured APN and gives the network a chance to resend the correct one. On iPhone it's under Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Reset, Reset Network Settings. On Android it's usually Settings, System, Reset options, Reset network settings, though the wording moves around by brand. The only real cost is re-pairing Bluetooth devices and re-entering wi-fi passwords afterwards.
Entering it by hand
On iPhone, go to Settings, Mobile Service (called Cellular on some regions), then Mobile Data Network. If that menu isn't there at all, your carrier has locked it, and you'll need to ask them to push the settings to you instead.
On Android, go to Settings, Network and internet, SIMs, Access Point Names. Add a new APN, fill in the values from your provider's panel above, save it, then select it.
The APN name is the only field that's genuinely essential. Leave anything your provider doesn't specify blank rather than inventing a value for it.
When it still doesn't work
One honest caveat to finish on. If you've reset network settings, entered the APN exactly as published, and data still won't move, stop retyping it. A blocked SIM or a service that was never properly activated looks identical to an APN problem from the outside, and no amount of fiddling with these fields will fix either. That's the point to call the provider.
Still no data?
If the settings are right and it still won't connect, the problem is on their end. Every provider profile lists how to reach its support directly.