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Finder’s mobile plans methodology
How we determined the Finder Mobile Awards.
What are the Finder Mobile Awards?
Finder's Mobile Awards are determined based on a methodology that analyses both plan value and network coverage. To determine our winners, we reviewed 258 mobile plans across 48 providers. We collected 3 months of data and reviewed cost and data allowance over a 12-month period.
Finder's Mobile Awards and ranking criteria
Our insights team and mobile plan experts determined the criteria for Finder's Mobile Awards. To be eligible:
Plans must be paid month-to-month or have a recharge period between 28 and 30 days (excluding long expiry plans which have an expiry of 365 days)
Plans must have been available for at least 3 months
Plans must still be available to purchase at the time of the awards being published (March 2024)
Our categories were selected to help Australians looking for prepaid and postpaid mobile plans that offer value for money. The 5 categories we looked at are:
Best Prepaid Mobile Provider - Value
Best Prepaid Mobile Provider - High Data
Best Postpaid Mobile Provider - Value
Best Postpaid Mobile Provider - High Data
Best Budget Mobile Provider
Best Long Expiry Prepaid Mobile Plan
We gave each plan in every category a value score score based on 7 factors:
Data allowance over 3 months
Cost over 3 months
How much the plan costs per day
Daily cost per gigabyte
Network coverage
International call inclusions
Option for data rollover
Our winners were the providers that topped the ranking score, with 2 runners-up given honourable mentions too so mobile plan users can have a wider choice.
Finder's Mobile Awards methodology by category
Best Prepaid Mobile Provider - Value
We looked at 58 prepaid mobile plans across 24 providers that cost under $35 per month. We weighted the following factors to determine an overall value score for each plan.
Data allowance over 12 months: 40%
Cost over 12 months: 20%
How much the plan costs per day: 25%
Daily cost per gigabyte: 5%
Network coverage: 10%
International call inclusions: 3%
Option for data rollover: 2%
Best Prepaid Mobile Provider - High Data
We compared 45 mobile plans across 20 prepaid providers that offered at least 40GB of data each month. Here's how much we weighted each factor in our ranking methodology:
Data allowance over 12 months: 25%
Cost over 12 months: 5%
How much the plan costs per day: 35%
Daily cost per gigabyte: 20%
Network coverage: 5%
International call inclusions: 3%
Option for data rollover: 2%
Best SIM Only Mobile Provider - Value
For this category, we analysed 78 postpaid mobile plans across 27 providers that cost under $35 per month. Our weighting system was:
Data allowance over 12 months: 25%
Cost over 12 months: 5%
How much the plan costs per day: 30%
Daily cost per gigabyte: 25%
Network coverage: 10%
International call inclusions: 3%
Option for data rollover: 2%
Best Postpaid Mobile Provider - High Data
We compared 84 mobile plans across 30 providers that offered at least 40GB of monthly data and ranked the plans according to the following weights:
Data allowance over 12 months: 25%
Cost over 12 months: 5%
How much the plan costs per day: 35%
Daily cost per gigabyte: 20%
Network coverage: 5%
International call inclusions: 3%
Option for data rollover: 2%
Best Long Expiry Mobile Plan Provider
We compared 13 365-day prepaid mobile plans from 11 providers that cost $150 or less. They also had to have a maximum data allowance of 180GB. Our weighting criteria was:
How much the plan costs per day: 50%
Daily cost per gigabyte: 30%
Network coverage: 15%
International call inclusions: 5%
Best Budget Mobile Provider
We compared 44 mobile plans from 11 providers that cost $20 or less. Our weighting criteria was:
Data allowance over 12 months: 4%
Cost over 12 months: 34%
How much the plan costs per day: 45%
Daily cost per gigabyte: 15%
Data rollover: 2%
Our awards research in numbers
340
Mobile plans reviewed
29
Providers compared
5
Mobile categories rated
What are the Finder customer satisfaction awards?
The Finder customer satisfaction awards recognise Australia's favourite brands across a huge number of categories. We survey thousands of real Australians to understand how they feel about their recent product purchases to help you decide what product to get. It's an independent awards program calculated by our data and insights team. Commercial partnerships do not influence the results in any way.
We gave out 1 overall award to the best-rated mobile provider for customer satisfaction, with 2 brands recognised as being highly commended.
Finder mobile provider customer satisfaction awards methodology
The recency period varied between 3 months and 3 years.
We got a minimum of 45 responses for each mobile provider.
Respondents were asked whether they would recommend the mobile provider to a friend. This result was scored out of 5 as a percentage. For example, if 80% of respondents said they would recommend a product, it received a score of 4 out of 5.
Customers were asked how they would rate each mobile provider overall on a scale between 1 and 5 and in terms of:
Customer service
Features and benefits
Speed
Reliability
Value for money
Overall
The final ranking for each mobile provider was calculated as an average of the 6 metrics outlined above and the percentage of customers who were likely to recommend the provider.
Our research in numbers
Total number of responses for mobile providers: 765 Total number of brands surveyed: 10
Why you can trust Finder's mobile plan experts
We've done the work
We've researched and reviewed hundreds of phone plans to make our guides as helpful as possible. Our experts can be seen across TV, print and digital media.
We're reliable
Our product database of 52 providers is updated daily with the latest mobile deals in Australia. Our guides are regularly reviewed and fact-checked.
We're here to help
Since 2015, we've helped over 1.2 million people find the right mobile plan by explaining features clearly and simply. We're here to help you make a decision.
Frequently asked questions
We currently run our Finder Mobile Awards once a year. The 2024 awards are based on plans that were available to purchase over the last 3 months ending March 2024.
We try our best to assess the majority of products in the market but this isn't always possible and it may be that not every product or brand in the market was included for judging.
Mariam Gabaji is an editor and tech and utilities expert at Finder with over 11+ years of experience in print and digital media. Her main goal is to help households cut through the industry jargon and save money on their household bills. Her expertise is often featured in media including the ABC, Yahoo Finance, 9News, 7News, A Current Affair, The Guardian, SBS and Money Magazine.
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Important information about this website
finder.com.au is one of Australia's leading comparison websites. We are committed to our readers and stands by our editorial principles
We try to take an open and transparent approach and provide a broad-based comparison service. However, you should be aware that while we are an independently owned service, our comparison service does not include all providers or all products available in the market.
Some product issuers may provide products or offer services through multiple brands, associated companies or different labeling arrangements. This can make it difficult for consumers to compare alternatives or identify the companies behind the products. However, we aim to provide information to enable consumers to understand these issues.
We make money by featuring products on our site. Compensation received from the providers featured on our site can influence which products we write about as well as where and how products appear on our page, but the order or placement of these products does not influence our assessment or opinions of them, nor is it an endorsement or recommendation for them.
Products marked as 'Top Pick', 'Promoted' or 'Advertisement' are prominently displayed either as a result of a commercial advertising arrangement or to highlight a particular product, provider or feature. Finder may receive remuneration from the Provider if you click on the related link, purchase or enquire about the product. Finder's decision to show a 'promoted' product is neither a recommendation that the product is appropriate for you nor an indication that the product is the best in its category. We encourage you to use the tools and information we provide to compare your options.
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When products are grouped in a table or list, the order in which they are initially sorted may be influenced by a range of factors including price, fees and discounts; commercial partnerships; product features; and brand popularity. We provide tools so you can sort and filter these lists to highlight features that matter to you.
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