Very few Australian prepaid plans give you an open international calling allowance. What they give is a threshold: above a certain recharge, a limited set of international destinations becomes available. Below it, international calls simply do not connect.
The published threshold
The Boost summary states that calls and text to selected standard international numbers are enabled on recharges of $39 to $365 only. Read that carefully. The cheapest recharges, $14 and $28, are not merely cheaper on international calls, they have none. And the allowance is for selected standard international numbers, not for international calls in general.
What is charged elsewhere
- Telstra prepaid charges 20 cents per text to international numbers and 75 cents per MMS to international numbers.
- TPG charges 50 cents per message for SMS to international numbers, maximum 160 characters, and it is not included.
- TPG offers an International Call Pack add-on at $5 per month rather than a per-minute rate in this summary.
The distinction to hold on to
An add-on is a purchase you make and it appears on your bill. An enabled threshold is a property of the recharge amount you chose, and it comes with no separate charge. Those are different products, and on the TPG plans they do not combine: the call pack is not included, and international numbers are listed under excluded usage.
What we could not verify. Where a provider has not published a figure we mark it unknown rather than estimate it. Re-read the provider page linked below on the day you decide.