Finder’s mobile plans methodology

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:

• Providers must offer SIM Only prepaid and postpaid plans
• 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%

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

Frequently asked questions

• How often are mobile plans reviewed for the Finder Awards?

  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.

• Do you review all mobile plans available in the market?

  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.

Written by

Mariam Gabaji

Editor I Tech and utilities expert

Mariam Gabaji is an editor and tech and utilities expert at Finder with 12+ years of experience as a journalist. She's committed to helping households cut through the industry jargon and save money on their bills. Her expertise is often featured in media including the ABC, Yahoo Finance, 9News, 7News, A Current Affair, The Guardian, SBS and Money Magazine. See full bio

Mariam's expertise

Mariam has written 303 Finder guides across topics including:

• Energy
• Mobile
• Broadband
• Consumer tech