Mobile Phone News
Optus Join Qantas Frequent Flyer
Optus have officially launched their Qantas Frequent Flyer integration offering two points per dollar on Optus personal services. The most refreshing part of this announcement was the lack of any asterix or superscript text to disclaim that two points was possible, 'depending on your circumstances' or 'excluding pre-paid and business'
Goodbye 3 Mobile Australia
Interesting news today as we say goodbye to the 3 Mobile brand on WhistleOut as VHA is retiring the new activities for 3 Mobile and not accepting any new customers beyond today. 3 have been a great performer on WhistleOut and we've put thousands of customers on to 3 Mobile since 2008 due to their very competitive pricing.
BlackBerry Bold 9900 Preview
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 has been one of the most anticipated releases in recent memory for RIM, the manufacturer of the popular BlackBerry line. The reason behind this is that the Bold 9900 has taken a slightly different approach to hardware design, without straying so far from RIM’s traditional form factor as the new BlackBerry Torch line has.
LG Optimus Sol Preview
LG has announced one of their next smartphones – the LG Optimus Sol. Hardware-wise the Optimus Sol is far from unimpressive. A single-core 1GHz CPU won’t turn too many heads, but it’s still a fast and solid processor for a smartphone. 512MB of RAM should be enough to handle most multitasking and a 5MP camera is pretty standard for today’s smartphone market.
Telstra LTE 4G Network On its Way
Telstra has announced the Enterprise and Business launch of its new Telstra 4G LTE Network. Come the 29th of August two thousand pioneer USB modems will be made available to Telstra Business customers. This new product is to be named the Telstra USB 4G and will run on both 4G LTE and 4G HSPA, utilising both the 1800MHz and 850MHz spectrum bands. This means that anywhere where customers do not have 4G support Telstra’s 3G HSPA network should still be available.
Mobile plan minutes: Visualised
Australian Telcos have been in the news of late, along with ACMA (The Australian Communications and Media Authority). The Sydney Morning Herald reported some of our investigations here at WhistleOut into simplifying mobile plan information and extracting the available minutes on plans - to display alongside the "value" they promote. Effectively the same idea as unit pricing in supermarkets. This echoed some of ACMA's recommendations in their inquiry into the telco sector: Reconnecting the Customer. Gizmodo also picked up on our infographic and it kicked off quite a bit of discussion on their site.
Samsung Galaxy Z Preview
Goodness knows the original Galaxy S had more versions of it than you could shake a stick at and, true to form, it looks like Samsung is taking the same path with the Galaxy S II. Introducing the Samsung Galaxy Z (I9103); the first semi-clone of the Galaxy S II. The Galaxy Z is a phone that sports a modern look and feel, but with a down-grading in both hardware and price when compared to Samsung’s new flagship phone of similar external design.
Nokia N9 Preview
The N9 has spent enough time running through the tech world now for opinions to have finally settled and the almost unanimous verdict is that Nokia has done something right. Although the Meego operating system has been described as a dead platform by more than on tech industry guru, it appears that both Nokia and Meego have managed to come together to create a fluid, interesting and overall useful device.
HTC Sensation Preview
The HTC Sensation is soon set to become HTC’s new flagship phone just about everywhere but the US. The Dual-core 1.2GHz handset boasts some impressive hardware specs, as well as the Android Gingerbread OS and new Sense 3.0 user interface (UI). It’s basically the very definition of the new generation of smartphones and should emerge as a solid competitor for Samsung’s much awaited Galaxy S II.
HTC Salsa Preview
The HTC Salsa is set to be released soon and carry on the strong-chinned legacy of the HTC Hero and HTC Legend, although with somewhat less focus on the unique case design and more on social networking (the iconic chin has seen a definite decrease in size when compared previous models). Also noticeable is the lack of any trackball or touchpad at the base of the device, HTC opting to instead include a dedicated Facebook button that lights up at different times, but more on that later.
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![[Editor's Picks] Best mobile phone plans for October 2026](https://r3.whistleout.com.au/public/images/articles/2026/01/mobile-phone-plan-Featured.png?w=280&h=280&usm=20&usmrad=0.8&fit=crop "[Editor's Picks] Best mobile phone plans for October 2026")
