Satellite and Mobile phones

If you want to be sure that you’ll get reception everywhere, then you will need a satellite phone. We recommend satellite phones for self guided walking holidays. These can be hired from many outlets, including the following:

Rent a Sat Phone
This site provides a lot of information about renting phones.

Renta2Way
Based in Melbourne where you can pick up a phone or they can mail it to you.

Satcom Hire & Sales
They will mail the phone to you.

We would appreciate any feedback about the service provided by any of these companies.

If you haven’t got a satellite phone then it is essential that you at least carry a mobile phone if you are doing a self-guided Auswalk holiday. Note that there will not be reception in all of the walking areas though.

With some phones, reception can be improved by purchasing a small external aerial that can clip onto our mobile phone. Our experience is that these aerials can increase signal strength by 1 to 2 bars, and often allows us to use the mobile in places where there would otherwise be no signal.

The emergency phone number from mobiles is 000 – this allows you to use any available network (even if it is not the one you subscribe to). Another useful tip is that text messaging requires less signal strength than voice communications. You may not be able to make a call, but you can still often send or receive a text message.