Optus
Strong across capital cities and most large regional centres. Drops off faster than Telstra once you're well outside a town, so worth checking your specific route or postcode if you travel regionally.
- Noticeably cheaper than Telstra for comparable data
- Owns and runs its own network, not a reseller
- No excess data charges on current plans
- eSIM on every current plan
- International talk and text included on Medium and Large plans
- Regional and remote coverage clearly behind Telstra
- A high-profile nationwide outage in November 2023 still shapes its reputation
- Small tier only covers national calls, no international inclusions
Optus is the network most people land on when Telstra feels like overkill for the price. It runs its own infrastructure rather than reselling someone else's, the plans are meaningfully cheaper, and coverage in cities and larger regional centres holds up well against Telstra day to day. The catch is what happens once you're further out, and the incident that's still attached to Optus's name whether that's fair at this point or not.
Current plans
Optus runs three SIM-only plans, all postpaid, month-to-month, no lock-in contract.
Plan | Data | Price |
|---|---|---|
Small Choice Plus | 60GB | $60/month |
Medium Choice Plus | 240GB | $70/month |
Large Choice Plus | 480GB | $90/month |
All three include no excess data charges and eSIM support. Medium and Large add international talk and text to 35 destinations; Small is national calls and texts only. Optus also runs a $5-per-5GB daily international roaming add-on across the range, and a loyalty benefit that discounts eligible subscriptions by up to 10%. Watch for promo pricing too: Optus has been running Small at $40/month for the first 12 months (through early September 2026), reverting to the $60 listed above afterward.
Compare these against every other current plan on the full comparison table.
Coverage: where it holds up, and where it doesn't
In a capital city or a large regional centre, Optus and Telstra are close enough that most people won't notice a practical difference. Optus's own network genuinely covers that ground well. Past that, though, the gap opens up. Telstra's rural and remote footprint is bigger, and if your regular drive or your property sits well outside a town, that's where Optus is more likely to lose you a bar or two that Telstra would have held onto.
If you're strictly a city or big-town user, this is mostly academic. If you spend meaningful time on regional roads or acreage, it's worth checking Optus's coverage map for your actual route before switching, rather than assuming "second-biggest network" translates evenly everywhere.
About the November 2023 outage
Worth addressing directly rather than skating past it. In November 2023, a network fault took the entire Optus mobile and broadband network down nationwide for roughly half a day, cutting off calls and data for millions of customers and disrupting access to triple-zero in some cases. It was a serious failure, drew a formal review, and Optus has since made changes aimed at preventing a repeat at that scale.
Since then, day-to-day reliability hasn't shown anything of that size again. Whether one incident, however serious, should still weigh against Optus two-plus years later is a fair call for you to make. We're noting it because it's the single most relevant fact about Optus's reputation, not because it reflects current week-to-week service.
APN settings
Switching to Optus, or setting up a new device? Optus APN settings has the exact values, including the alternate 4G-only APN some plans need.
Who Optus is actually for
Optus suits anyone who wants clearly lower pricing than Telstra without dropping down to a smaller MVNO, and who does most of their living in a city or large regional centre. The Medium and Large plans in particular are solid value if you also want international calling folded in rather than bought as an add-on.
It's a weaker fit if regional or remote coverage genuinely matters to your day, since that's the one place Telstra's premium keeps earning its keep. And if the 2023 outage is a dealbreaker for you personally, that's a reasonable place to land, even if it isn't representative of ongoing service.
The verdict
Optus is a strong middle option: meaningfully cheaper than Telstra, with coverage that holds up fine for most city and large-regional users, and plans with no nasty excess-data surprises. The rating here reflects genuinely good value pulled down slightly by the coverage gap outside major population centres and the shadow the 2023 outage still casts. If your life is mostly metro, Optus is an easy recommendation. If it isn't, check the coverage map for your specific area before committing.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Optus cheaper than Telstra?
- Yes, clearly. For similar data allowances, Optus plans run noticeably below Telstra's SIM-only range. The trade-off is coverage: Optus is strong in cities and large regional centres but doesn't reach as far into remote Australia.
- What happened with the Optus outage?
- In November 2023, a network fault took Optus offline nationwide for close to half a day, affecting calls, mobile data and even some triple-zero access. It was a genuinely serious incident and a fair thing to weigh up. Optus has since made changes to its network resilience, and day-to-day service since hasn't shown a repeat of that scale.
- Does Optus support eSIM?
- Yes, on every current SIM-only plan, alongside a physical SIM option at signup.
- Can I cancel an Optus plan any time?
- Yes. All three current SIM-only plans are month-to-month with no lock-in contract.