eSIM for Australia including Tasmania

I can't comment on esim deals or pricing, but if you're going to be outside major urban areas, you want something using the Telstra network, as the coverage is notably better. There are a few different options - my friends and I are splilt fairly evenly between Telstra, Boost, Aldi and Woolworths. (Only the first two have full Telstra coverage, as I think the latter use Telstra's wholesale network, but for the Blue Mountains at least, I can confirm there's no noticeable diffference. If you're doing very serious hiking you'll need an alternative solution regardless.)

The SIMs snoozy has mentioned are all on the Telstra network, so all have the same coverage. And yes, if you're outside the major metro areas then Telstra has the best coverage. Personally I am on the Optus network and find it fine for most places I normally go in Australia, including regional areas (somewhere like the Blue Mountains for example, which is close enough to Sydney), but if you are heading to more rural or remote areas, then as Snoozy days, stick with Telstra as the other networks don't have the same reach.

Well, parts of the Blue Mountains don't have great coverage on any network, but that's more geography than anything else (e.g. Megalong Valley, though it's better than it was).

@Simon, apparently there is a minor difference in network access between Boost/Telstra and Aldi/Woolworths, but I've never been remote enough to really notice the edge cases (or else I was so remote there was no coverage at all, at least a few years ago).

I used my Airalo eSIM for data with no problems in Melbourne and Hobart (and down the GOR). I didn’t go to Sydney or Lauceston.

Thanks all. I'll download maps like I typically do as back up if we lose service somewhere. I used Airalo in England and it worked well and would feel familiar.

More as a general PSA than advice for the experienced traveller or a comment against Airalo: depending on where you end up and what you're doing, esp. in places like Tassie, Blue Mountains and isolated rural roads more generally, I'd recommend both offline maps and regular hiking precautions (notifying someone of your plans, enough water, clothes etc), as there are a few more dead phone reception spots than one might think.

Obviously much less of an issue in cities and where most tourists are likely to end up - just wanted to make sure I'd said it. (My volunteer rescue friends would never forgive me otherwise!)

Used an eSIM on a recent Australia trip, including Tasmania, and coverage was honestly better than expected. Major carriers worked fine in cities and along main highways, but rural stretches definitely had weak spots. Downloading offline maps saved me more than once. Activating the eSIM before landing made everything smoother, so I had data the moment I stepped off the plane.

https://travelsims.app/country/Australia

I have been using this site to compare esims for different counties. If you click the esim, some will list the networks used by the esim.

Just an FYI

We are home from Australia. I purchased a 30 day Airalo eSIM for myself and one with much less data for my husband so we could communicate while he was at the Ausi open. When they were activated, immediately his lost the ability to receive messages, imessages and texts. So frustrating, but we were able to email each other. No matter what I did to his settings, nothing would fix it. He also could not get his messages when we had wifi.

Much later in the trip, I also lost the ability to send and receive messages. After my 30 days were up, I didn’t buy another eSIM, and messages came back, tho they all are sent/received via my email address. I think we will have to go to the Apple Store to straighten this all out.

I also noticed at the Ausi Open where there were many, many, MANY people, frequently I could not get on the internet. I figured it was just due to the volume of people. However, when I looked around, others were using their phones.

Occasionally, I also had dead spots, and did have maps downloaded for those situations

We used Airalo in England and did not have these issues.

Jules, the Airalo SIM you got for Australia was on the Optus 5G network.
There are 2 possibilities for your problems.

1. There is a button in settings which when on allows data only while on the 5G network. If you only had 4G it may not connect.

2. The most likely possibility is that you had apps on the phone that were downloading data in the background. With a 5G connection you could download 5GB (5000MB) of data in less than 3 minutes. How much data did you buy? Your husband may have used all of his allocation while still at the airport

"However, when I looked around, others were using their phones."

They may well have been on a different network, hence different coverage/capacity.

@Simon, figured that was the case.

@Yarra, I believe my husband had 2-3 GB, He had some leftover at the end of the trip. I do the planning and navigation, I believe I had about 12GB. I hit the 30 day before running out of data.

There is wifi so many places we likely would have been fine without. That said, it was so cheap that why not?! Additionally, the wifi at our hotel for 5 days in Melbourne was crap.

This issue with losing messages with an eSIM must be somewhat common, because it was coming up on my web searches. It wasn’t the biggest deal, mostly that when we are gone so long, we like to get the messages and pics from our kids, but we always can resort to email.