Boost Mobile review Australia

Boost Mobile Australia has been the go-to prepaid SIM provider for students and seniors for yonks now. The plucky prepaid telco got its start shelling out cheap PAYG (Pay As You Go) plans to high school students who were firing off an unprecedented amount of text messages from the Nokia 3310 back in 2000.

Over two decades later, the brand still markets itself as the antidote to Australia’s increasingly crowded and complicated mobile market, offering simple prepaid phone plans on Telstra’s 4G network with no lock-in contracts. It also offers outright refurbished phone purchases for the budget-minded.

If you (or a family member) are looking to cut back on bills or simply don’t use your smartphone as much as others, Boost has a comprehensive range of plans with 28-day data rollover and long expiry recharge options to suit just about every need.

There are currently five plan tiers for the popular 28-day recharge option, ranging from $20 to $70 per recharge. Like any prepaid mobile service, Boost Mobile’s low-commitment plans are a great choice for parents looking to purchase a SIM for their kids. With auto-recharge disabled, parents can have peace of mind that they aren’t going to receive a big, nasty bill when the next season of Fortnite drops.

Here's how Boost's plans currently stack up against other popular providers on the Telstra network.

Boost Mobile is the only MVNO in Australia with access to Telstra’s full 3G/4G network, which reaches 99.4% of Australia’s population. Other MVNOs using the Telstra network only have access to the provider’s wholesale network, which covers 98.8% of the population.

If you're unsure whether your workplace or home will be covered by Boost Mobile, you can use the interactive map below to check. Just be sure to select Telstra in the drop-down menu and untick the box marked 5G.

Boost Mobile is also the first Telstra MVNO to receive 5G access. However, for now, this next-generation connectivity is only available on the provider's priciest $70 plan. Given that Telstra themselves offer access to the same 5G network for less, this might not be the best value option for those seeking faster speeds.

You can check out the widget below for a round-up of popular plans from providers using Telstra's mobile network.

If you’re particularly budget-conscious and own your own handset, it’s hard to pass up Boost Mobile’s Telstra-powered prepaid plans. Boost Mobile’s most popular 28-day recharge plans all come with unlimited calls and text and unlimited international calls and text to 20 regions (plus 100 minutes to an additional 35 countries).

Boost Mobile also offers long expiry prepaid plans with 6 or 12-month recharges (as opposed to the usual 28-day expiry). Long expiry plans are typically the best choice for low-usage customers; smartphone users who don’t require a lot of inclusions/data and don’t want the hassle of recharging every month.

If you’re looking to nab the latest and greatest smartphone on a contract without any upfront fees, Boost Mobile won’t be able to provide you with what you need. For anyone who’s disorganised or just chows through a lot of data, Boost does offer an Auto-Recharge option, however it shares the same pitfall as any prepaid if you don’t use it: burning through your inclusions can result in your service being disconnected if you run out of credit.

If you (or a member of your family) has whipped through your allocated data amount for the month, Boost Mobile offers low-price data add-ons to get you by until it’s time to recharge again.

Boost Mobile data add-ons are available at two price tiers: $5 for 1GB or $15 for 3GB. Both add-on tiers will expire 28 days after purchase (or once the additional data has been used up). The add-ons will be counted as either $5 or $15 respectively in credit.

As of 13 October 2020, Boost Mobile (and Telstra as a whole) is no longer offering international roaming for prepaid plans. The telco has put this down to “platform changes” and says users can expect to regain access to international roaming around early 2022. With borders now opening up and overseas travel back on the cards, it's something customers need to be aware of.

Between Telstra’s crazy amount of support channels and no-frills supplier Spintel’s measly two points of call, Boost Mobile falls on the higher side of the middle. When you need help, you can give them a call, turn to their customer forum, hit up their online chat service or responsive Facebook page or do it all yourself from their app.

Likewise, Boost Mobile’s customer satisfaction scores are pretty average, if not slightly on the low side. At the time of writing, it's got a measly 2-star rating on Product Review and just 1.4-stars on Trustpilot.

If you're a Boost Mobile customer having issues with your service, you can reach out to the provider via the following channels:

• Live chat support is available via the Boost Mobile website (7AM-11PM AEST, 7 days a week) and Boost Mobile App (available on iOS and Android)
• The Boost Mobile Facebook page
• Boost Mobile on Twitter (@BoostAus)
• You can also call Boost Mobile Australia customer support directly via 1800 100 933 (8AM-8PM AEST, 7 days a week)

For more information on how we review mobile providers like Boost Mobile, check out this page.