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Fourth Australian iPhone Carrier; Virgin Mobile

MacWorld is reporting that Virgin Mobile has officially become the fourth carrier in Australia to offer up Apple’s iPhone 3G. Quite a contrast to the way we’re used to dealing with the device here in the states, there seems to be an odd thing happening down under… People are getting to make a choice.

“It was a bit of a surprise when Apple first announced that any countries would have the option to get iPhone service from more than one carrier, but Australia’s now taken that to the next level. Unlike us poor Americans, who are locked, stocked, and barreled into AT&T, the land of Oz now allows its citizens to choose from four different providers, giving them the undisputed crown of “most iPhone providers in a given country” (until they are inevitably unseated by Muhammad Ali),” reports Dan Moren for Macworld.com.

“Vodafone and Optus were the first companies to announce their presence in Australia, but they were later joined by the country’s largest provider, Telstra. Now, a fourth mobile phone operator has entered the fray: Virgin Mobile Australia,” Moren explains.

We’ve updated our iPhone Carrier World Map, which shows all of the countries, carriers, plans and iPhone prices around the globe.

Virgin’s default plan costs AUD$70 per month for a term of 24-months, most of which goes towards the price of the phone (for which you pay nothing upfront). That plan includes AUD$520 of monthly included credit and 1GB of data. Calls on Virgin’s network are charged by the rate of AUD$0.40 per thirty seconds, along with an AUD$0.40 connection fee (that’ll get you about 433 one-minute phone calls, though obviously the bang for your buck improves if you talk longer). If you’d like take more advantage of the iPhone’s data connection, you can choose the AUD$100/month plan to bump your monthly data limit up to 5GB.

via MacWorld