Every provider on the TPG/Vodafone network

TPG Telecom owns and runs the Vodafone network here, which is why you see it labelled both ways. On its own numbers it operates more than 5,600 mobile sites and covers over 25 million people.

The number worth pausing on is the regional one. TPG says its network-sharing arrangement went live in January 2025 and doubled its geographic reach from 400,000 square kilometres to more than a million, taking 4G population coverage to 99%. That is a genuinely different network from the one people remember, and most of the advice floating around online predates it.

Two honest caveats. Population coverage and geographic coverage measure different things, and a shared regional network is still not the same as Telstra's own remote footprint. If you spend real time well outside town, check your specific routes rather than trusting any headline percentage, ours included.

In a capital city or a decent regional centre, though, you will struggle to tell this network apart from the other two in daily use. Writing it off on a decade-old reputation is how people end up paying more than they need to.

This network rewards the price-conscious city user. If your week runs between home, work and the usual suburbs, a Vodafone-based brand can be one of the cheapest solid plans in the country.

felix mobile is the odd one out worth a look. TPG sells it as a single plan with unlimited data at speeds up to 40Mbps, which either suits you completely or not at all. If you mostly stream and browse and hate thinking about gigabytes, it is the simplest thing on this list.

Lebara and Lycamobile both build their pitch around cheap international calling, so they are the obvious start if you phone family overseas regularly.

Rural and remote users should still start with the Telstra network. Everyone else: check your own postcode, then buy on price.