🚀 go-pugleaf

It's a little more expensive to get the handset in Australia than the UK.
At the beginning of 1999 they were never sim-locked in Australia (check
this).  Basic phones were around A$300 with a payg sim, may have fallen
since.

If you get an unlocked DUAL-BAND one in the UK (Virgin are cheapest?), you
could use it in Australia.  Dual-band phones are still rare there (it's all
GSM900, with recent exceptions in Sydney).  Don't get a GSM 1800 only phone
in the UK, almost unusable in Australia.

One argument for waiting until you get to Oz is if you get any problems with
the phone you can take it back easily (it'll be worthless after the first
year anyway).

But if you've got a few weeks you've got time to get and test one here.  I
think the Virgin one would even allow you some expensive roaming in
Australia for the fist few days until you sort out a local card (again,
check this, I'm not in the UK at present).

Rob
http://www.freecomms.com - free communications worldwide

mick_patrick@my-deja.com wrote in message <85cvq8$9g0$1@nnrp1.deja.com>...
>I'm moving to Australia for a year in a few weeks. I'll need a mobile
>there as soon as I arrive, but would like to get one that I could then
>continue to use in the UK on my return.
>
>Since I need one immediately, with no credit background / bank account
>in Oz, I guess a pre-pay system is the way to go.