TPG Mobile: Plans and prices

TPG may be more renowned for its internet services but it also sells monthly Prepaid mobile plans. Like its internet plans, TPG Prepaid mobile plans are competitively priced no-frills offerings with a tendency for promotional pricing and a decent chunk of data. Here’s everything you need to know about TPG Prepaid mobile plans in Australia.

• TPG operates on the Vodafone mobile network, primarily via 4G and 3G networks, which offers coverage to 96% of Australians in metro areas. The priciest TPG plan includes an ongoing Vodafone 5G network trial.
• At first glance, TPG Prepaid mobile plans may look like SIM Only plans but they are all paid in advance of monthly use.
• TPG’s main ongoing perk is six months of discounted promotional pricing for new sign-ups across its Prepaid plans.
• TPG Prepaid plans aren’t particularly feature-rich, though you can add international calls to 37 countries for a flat monthly add-on fee.

TPG exclusively sells Prepaid mobile plans. But unlike other Prepaid telcos, TPG Prepaid plans are actually a monthly offering, rather than the 28-day or 30-day recharges of competitors. Despite a SIM Only-like monthly appearance, recharge fees are still paid upfront to access unlimited standard national talk and text, plus fixed data amounts.

There are a handful of TPG Prepaid mobile plans, which are built for casual to moderate to heavy data users. Like iiNet mobile plans, TPG Prepaid plans typically have limited-time promotional pricing for new customers: the first six months are half the price. That’s great for dollar-to-data value in those first six months, but less competitive when the pricing reverts to a typical fee (between $20 and $40).

TPG Prepaid mobile plans are offered on the Vodafone mobile network, primarily on 4G and 3G. TPG’s priciest Prepaid plan does include an ongoing Vodafone 5G network trial. According to Opensignal data, real-world average speeds are 50Mbps download and 10Mbps upload across the Vodafone network. For the Vodafone 5G network specifically, average upload speeds don’t change but you can expect average download speeds around 62Mbps.

TPG Prepaid mobile plans range from a little to a lot of data. Casual users can look at TPG’s cheapest Prepaid plans. Moderate to heavy mobile users can check out the two pricier TPG Prepaid plans, both of which comfortably offer more than the Australian 35GB monthly mobile data median. If you exceed your monthly recharge data allowance, you can pay a fee for 1GB blocks of extra data.

International calls aren’t included by default with TPG Prepaid mobile plans. Instead, an international call pack add-on is required each month to access mobile and landline calls in these 37 dialling destinations: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Canary Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America and Vatican City.

Note that international SMS isn’t included with this add-on.

TPG has a tendency for ongoing promotional pricing. If there’s a TPG Prepaid mobile deal on today, it’ll be below.

Outside of Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Amaysim, Prepaid plans aren’t particularly stacked with perks. For TPG, its main perks are $0 setup fees and an actual monthly billing cycle rather than 28 or 30 days. TPG doesn’t offer perks like a digital eSIM instead of a physical SIM card. The only other perk worth flagging is that TPG offers international roaming. Admittedly, it’s not as good as fixed-price international roaming add-ons; instead, TPG uses pay-as-you-go (PAYG) credit.

Note that international roaming is enabled by default for new TPG sign-ups. Costs vary based on what you want to do, but data is charged from 50 cents to $15.50 per megabyte (charged in 10KB blocks. Making and receiving calls costs $1 for Zone 1 destinations, $2 for Zone 2 and $4 for Zone 3. Text messages don’t cost anything to receive but cost 50 cents for Zone 1 countries or $1 for Zone 2 and Zone 3 destinations.

Here are the 59 TPG Zone 1 destinations: Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain (including Canary Islands), Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine, and United States of America.

Here are the 68 TPG Zone 2 destinations: Algeria, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Cayman Islands, Chile (including Easter Island), Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, East Timor, Egypt, El Salvador, French Polynesia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guyana, Iraq, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Poland, Qatar, Reunion, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

And here’s a list of the 38 TPG Zone 3 destinations: Angola, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Cook Islands, Dominica, Georgia, Honduras, Jersey, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Maldives, Moldova, Monaco, Montserrat, Myanmar, New Caledonia, Niger, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Senegal, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Suriname, The Gambia, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

TPG is a Vodafone mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which sells Prepaid mobile plans on the Vodafone network. While the priciest TPG Prepaid plan includes access to the Vodafone 5G network, most of the plans offer up to Vodafone 4G, which covers “more than 96 per cent of the Australian population across the nation’s 10 largest cities.” The Vodafone 3G network is being shut down on 15 December 2023. Use the interactive map below for a visual indication of Vodafone network coverage in your area or other places of interest.

Whether you want to switch to or from TPG mobile, changing telcos in Australia is a straightforward process. Follow the steps below to sign up for a TPG Prepaid mobile plan:

1. Browse the list of TPG Prepaid plans and pick which one works best for your mobile needs. Use the orange ‘Go to Site’ button (if it’s available) to go directly to the TPG mobile page.
2. While on the TPG Prepaid mobile page, click the plan you want to confirm selection and, optionally, add unlimited international calls.
3. Use the ‘Buy Now’ button at the bottom of the page to go to the checkout, then add your title, name, mobile number and email address.
4. Use ‘Next’ to shift between the checkout fields and complete details for the account, mobile service and payment fields.

TPG offers free express SIM card delivery. If you’re in a metro area, you should receive it the next business day (if you order before midday). When the SIM card arrives, use the TPG web portal to activate your service. New mobile numbers should take two hours to activate. For customers transferring their existing mobile number, TPG advises using your old SIM card until it stops working (then replace it with the TPG SIM).