
Get exclusive tech offers and guides
Straight to your inbox
Updated . What changed?
We’re reader-supported and may be paid when you visit links to partner sites. We don’t compare all products in the market, but we’re working on it!
A number of mobile carriers allow you the opportunity to share data across several different plans. If you never use up all your data but your kids always burn through theirs, a data sharing or data pooling plan could be the solution. We'll look at what's available and how economical an option this really is.
If you have any Optus postpaid mobile plan, you can share data between multiple plans that are grouped under a single account. This works with all of Optus's postpaid offerings, starting from $39 monthly for 10GB.
There's no way to control this data pool — if your plans are linked on the same account, anyone can burn through all the data if they feel like it. Considering the expense of Optus's plans, you could be better off buying your kids a cheaper prepaid plan with more data instead of sharing, especially if you think your kids are heavy mobile users.
Interested in data sharing with Optus? Find out more on how it works here
You'll find the mobile plans that have data pooling options from Optus listed below.
Vodafone's data sharing is just as simple as that offered by Optus. As long as you have multiple of its standard Infinite and Plus postpaid plans bundled under a single account, you'll be able to share max speed data between them. Just like Optus, this data is pooled automatically and you can't control how much of it each user gets access to.
Vodafone's "infinite data" works the same for this as it normally does: when you exceed your shared data pool cap, all users will be restricted to 2, 10, or 25Mbps on further downloads depending on the plan, but not charged. Vodafone offers a little incentive for you to consider bundling, offering 5–20% bundling discounts on multiple plans, but you may still be better off just buying a cheap plan for the kids.
Here are Vodafone's plans that are eligible for data sharing.
With ALDImobile, you can buy a one-size-fits-all prepaid Family Plan. This plan offers you and up to 3 other users access to 72GB of data total for $80. This plan includes controls that let you set individual limits for certain users, meaning one person can't hog all the data if you don't want them to.
All the controls on the account will only be accessible by whoever purchased it and unused data rolls over from month to month.
While they may not be as family-focused as the ones we've delved into above, the below MVNOs have data sharing or gifting between phones on the same provider. These providers include:
Outside of simple data sharing plans, there is a provider with incentives for families and households to sign up. Yomojo allows you to put up to 6 different mobile plans on the same account, with a sliding discount to the total cost for each plan you add. The maximum discount is 15% with 6 plans attached.
You can take a look at Yomojo's mobile plans in the table below.
Data sharing can be convenient for businesses where extra data might be floating around and you have an incentive to keep it all under one name for accounting purposes. It's also potentially useful for families where one person may be paying all the bills anyway and data may otherwise be going to waste — for example, one of the parents may not really use all that much data but the kids need extra.
Whether you're actually saving money by grabbing a family data sharing plan depends on your exact circumstances. However, because the providers who allow for data sharing and gifting tend to have lower value or more expensive plans overall, you might not really save all that much, even with bundling incentives and discounts.
Rather, you could be far better off getting a plan for yourself with a reasonable amount of data included and then buying a sensible prepaid plan for the kids with a level of data that you've both agreed upon. That way, you won't be paying any excess data charges if the kids go over the cap and you also won't be paying for data you may potentially never use.
Click here to see our best picks of mobile plans for your kids
You can get international roaming on most of Telstra’s postpaid mobile plans for just $10 a day.
Read more…The Samsung Galaxy S21 is now available to pre-order from the major telcos and it doesn't have to cost you a fortune.
Read more…felix Mobile is now offering 20Mbps instead of 5Mbps on its unlimited mobile data plan. But is it actually a good deal?
Read more…Image: Getty
You can get international roaming on most of Telstra’s postpaid mobile plans for just $10 a day.
It’s never been a better time to switch mobile plans than now. Prices have dropped by 17% compared to last year, and over 50% since 5 years ago.
Optus is finally offering “unlimited” data on its SIM-only plans, but how does it compare to “unlimited” data from Telstra & Vodafone?
Stay connected to the Internet during an NBN outage with an NBN plan that comes with a 4G backup modem.
MyNetFone offers a range of mobile plans for your business, with a dedicated app to keep track of your spending.
Vodafone has some great deals if you're looking for an affordable way to own a new iPhone, with no excess data charges involved.
Top deals include 500GB for $55 from Vodafone, triple the data from Circles.Life and 50% off amaysim long expiry plans.
Data only SIM plans can be easily inserted into your iPad or tablet for wireless Internet on the go.
TPG’s new MVNO, Felix, comes with ‘unlimited’ data but at capped speeds. Is it worth it, or are there better plans out there?
Find the best mobile plan deals for the biggest iPhone ever - the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Get no excess data charges on these unlimited data mobile plans.
Save money with these top no-contract deals.
Avoid bill shock and control your spending with the best-value offers.
Easily compare every Australian iPhone plan.