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Mobile internet, 4G and 5G in Australia

Australia has three mobile networks: Telstra, Optus and TPG Telecom, which says it owns and operates the nationwide Vodafone mobile network. Telstra is the one that puts the most numbers on the table: it states that its 4G reaches 99.7 per cent of the Australian population and its 5G more than 93 per cent. Those figures come from Telstra and describe Telstra's own network — not Australia as a whole, and not from a regulator.

Telstra closed its 3G network on 28 October 2024. Compatible devices moved onto 4G and 5G at that point, and the operator says the released spectrum is going into advancing both networks further. For a traveller, that boils down to one thing: a phone that can only do 3G is no longer a safe choice in Australia.

Roaming in Australia without an eSIM

Australia sits outside the European roaming area. 'Roam Like at Home' covers the 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Moldova and Ukraine, and Australia is not among them. Your Belgian or Dutch plan therefore stops at customs: from then on your operator bills Australian data at its own out-of-bundle rate, without the European price caps that apply inside the zone. The European Commission warns explicitly that roaming outside the EU and EEA can be expensive and advises asking your provider what it costs beforehand. On a trip to the other side of the world, which is rarely a short one, that matters more than on a weekend across the border.

Coverage in Australia: people on one side, square kilometres on the other

The honest caveat about Australia is not about the population but about the map. TPG Telecom publishes both numbers itself: its network serves over 25 million people and, after a regional network-sharing arrangement that went live in January 2025, its 4G population coverage reached 99 per cent. On the same page, TPG states that its geographic reach grew from 400,000 km² to more than one million km². Put those two side by side and the point is clear: Australians are covered, the continent is not. For a city trip that changes little; for a long drive between two places it changes a lot.