Southern Phone mobile plans review

Find out how we score mobile providers.

Southern Phone sells SIM Only plans on the Optus 4G network, all of which come with unlimited standard talk and text in Australia. The cheapest is the Small SIM Only Plan, which normally costs $12.99 a month for 2.5GB of data.

At the time of writing, there was a $2.99 monthly discount for the life of the plan, which brought the Small SIM Only Plan down to $10 a month. In terms of first-year pricing, this is beaten only by fellow Optus MVNO Moose Mobile’s 9.80 SIM Only Promo plan, which comes with 6GB of data for $9.80 a month (normally $15.80 per month). Spintel, Circles.Life and Vaya offer better value plans for those who want more data.

Below is a daily updating list of popular SIM Only plans with at least 2.5GB of data that don’t cost more than $15 a month.

The next Southern Phone SIM Only plan is more than double the cost of its cheapest plan but comes with four times the data: that’s 10GB for $25 a month as part of the Medium SIM Only Plan.

Competition is a lot fiercer at this price point, and you have to scroll more to find Southern Phone’s plan in our comparison engine. It’s beaten by Spintel, Moose Mobile, Circles.Life, Dodo Mobile and Vaya in terms of other Optus MVNOs. Plus, there are Telstra MVNOs with better pricing and/or more data, too: Mate, Pennytel, Woolworths Mobile and Belong. In short, there are better value plans to go with for $25 or less a month.

Below is a daily updating list of popular SIM Only plans that come with at least 10GB of data and don’t cost more than $25 a month.

The price jump for the next plan isn’t as extreme with Southern Phone’s Large SIM Only Plan costing $35 a month for 30GB of data.

Southern Phone struggles to compete against familiar names at this price point, too. At the time of updating this review, Circles.Life had two plans with better pricing and stacks more data. In terms of other Optus MVNOs, Spintel, Moose Mobile and Dodo all offered better value plans at this price point, too. For Telstra MVNOs, Mate, Numobile, Pennytel, Belong and Woolworths Mobile also offered plans with better pricing and/or more data. All of these are worth considering ahead of Southern Phone.

For further comparison, below is a daily updating list of popular SIM Only plans that don’t cost more than $35 a month and come with at least 30GB of data.

Southern Phone’s last offering is the X-Large SIM Only Plan, which costs $45 a month for 60GB of data.

While there’s less scrolling to find Southern Phone’s plan in our comparison engine when searching for plans with at least 60GB of data, there’s still better value from familiar telcos. The Circles.Life 100GB Monthly Plan offers 100GB of data for $38 a month (when it doesn’t have promo pricing) and Spintel offers 70GB at the same monthly fee. Meanwhile, Belong offers 80GB of Telstra network data for $45 a month. Vodafone and Woolworths Mobile also offer plans at the same price with more data and better perks.

Below is a daily updating list of popular SIM Only plans that cost $45 a month and come with at least 60GB of data.

Southern Phone also offers a range of Samsung (including the great Samsung Galaxy A52) and Nokia handsets that can be paid off as part of Postpaid plans, paired with any of those four plans above. Check out 10 of the most popular handset picks below.

Not content with exclusively tapping into the “Phone” part of its brand name, there are also a range of Southern Phone NBN plans for fixed-line, Fixed Wireless and NBN satellite connections.

You can see all of Southern Phone’s NBN plans below.

Southern Phone’s cheapest SIM Only plan doesn’t come with any perks of note. From the Medium plan upwards, though, the more you spend, the more international call credit you get: $50 for Medium, $300 for Large and $500 for X-Large. While where in the world you can call doesn’t appear to be limited, the call rates vary depending on the country.

While Southern Phone wasn’t offering senior discounts at the time of updating this review, the telco did offer a Swissvoice C50s mobile phone that’s built for senior users.

If you’re after a perky SIM Only provider, we’d recommend having a look at plans from Woolworths Mobile, Optus, Mate and Vodafone first.

Southern Phone has a decent range of support options if you have questions. You can call Southern Phone on 13 14 64 or email them via the telco’s info@southernphone.net.au email address. Alternatively, you can get a reply within an hour via Facebook chat (about five minutes in my test) or on the Southern Phone website from either live chat or self-service support. There is a Southern Phone app for usage monitoring and the like, but the Android version hasn’t been updated since 16 July 2018 and recent reviews suggest it’s not a great app experience.

As for customer satisfaction, Southern Phone mobile has a 1.4 out of 5 rating on consumer-review website Product Review (down from 1.6 in January 2020) after close to 200 reviews. Most reviews have one star, with a breakdown of 1.8 for value for money, 1.4 for customer service and transparency, as well as 2.7 for local reception. Trustpilot only had five reviews for a score of 2.5 out of 5, but it’s worth noting that some of these reviews were in relation to Southern Phone’s NBN plans.

Click ‘Go’ on the Southern Phone mobile plan you like the look of below or head directly to the telco’s website to sign up for a plan. Once there, click the ‘Purchase Now’ button to confirm the plan then ‘Add to Cart’ on the next screen. Input your details and accept the terms to have a Southern Phone SIM card sent to your address.

Below is an at-a-glance look at the four SIM Only plans on offer from Southern Phone.

At the time of writing, the only way to get 5G in Australia was via Telstra, Optus, Vodafone or Spintel (with Spintel being the only MVNO to sell 5G plans). Below is a daily updating list of popular 5G plans.