Felix Mobile Australia review

Felix Mobile is a Vodafone MVNO and is powered by the Vodafone 4G network. For comparison, here's a quick list of some of the most popular mobile plans in Australia right now. 

When it comes to mobile, you’ve usually got three choices: Prepaid, postpaid, or SIM only. But when it comes to Felix Mobile, you only have one choice. No, really. There’s only one SIM only plan on offer from this telco: the Felix $35 subscription.

It costs $35 a month and you get “endless” (Felix’s word) national talk and text as well as “endless” data on the Vodafone 4G/3G mobile network. The catch, of course, is that its speeds are capped at a 20Mbps maximum.

This means your max download speed and max upload speed are both set at 20Mbps. Considering that Felix adds an “up to” prefix every time it lists 20Mbps, it’s safe to assume you shouldn’t expect speeds beyond that.

To put that into context, have a gander at other SIM Only plans around the same price point.

'Unlimited data' is a phrase that gets tossed around quite a lot these days but the reality is that there are few phone plans with truly unlimited data in Australia with the exception of Vodafone, which offers one unlimited plan for $85 per month. Most telcos that claim to offer unlimited or limitless data offer it with a catch - and that catch is a speed cap.

Telstra, Optus and Vodafone all offer their own take on unlimited data SIM-only plans, each with different speed caps, full-speed data inclusions and fair use policies. Telstra and Optus have the most bare-bones unlimited offerings, which isn't surprising given they advertise their 1.5Mbps speed caps as a way for customers to avoid bill shock rather than necessarily marketing these plans towards people looking for unlimited data.

Vodafone does this too, however, their take is a little different. Each plan comes with a different speed cap - their SIM-only Lite and Lite+ cap out at 2Mbps after you've used up all your included full-speed data, then the cap increases with the cost of each following plan. However, as of 2021, Vodafone has begun offering an unlimited data plan with no speed cap for $85 per month. 

Felix has all these speed caps (except for Vodafone's top-tier plan) beat, so if you're a really heavy data user, it's not a bad choice if you're not set on the perks and coverage that come with the big three. For 20Mbps, you can do most online tasks, including HD video streaming and calls. You might experience longer waiting times on big app updates, and offloading huge photo albums to the cloud, but for day-to-day usage, you probably won't notice much of a difference on 20Mbps. Felix also says that tethering should be limited to a single device.

Like other telcos and NBN providers, the “endless” data that Felix offers with its subscription is also governed by a fair-use policy.

See how Felix compares to the most popular "unlimited" data plans from the big three below.

Felix Mobile is an MVNO that uses the Vodafone 3G/4G network to provide coverage to Australians. At the time of writing, Vodafone 3G/4G coverage reaches approximately 96% of Australians, making it the smallest network of the big three. However, should it pass ACCC approval, a recent deal between Telstra and TPG Telecom could see the Vodafone network (and by extension, Felix mobile coverage) expand significantly towards the end of 2022. 

Here's a map of Felix Mobile (Vodafone 3G/4G coverage). Use the tool to navigate towards your address to find out if you've got sufficient coverage to sign up. 

There are some active and passive perks to the Felix subscription. In terms of what’s included, Felix prides itself on being a carbon-neutral telco, powered by 100 percent renewable energy and vows to plant one tree per month for each active subscriber.

The active costs are a little more traditional. You can add on $5 a month for “endless” talk and text to 42 international dialling locales. Those 42 countries may change, but you can see the latest list here. Opt to use the international talk/text pack immediately or schedule it for future use.

You can also add international roaming for $20. Unlike other telcos, that $20 covers you for 365 days, granted it’s restricted to 4GB of data (at speeds of up to 20Mbps), alongside 100 minutes of standard calls and 100 standard texts. This covers 41 countries, some of which are the same as those 42 above, but the list also may change. Check out the latest list of included countries here.

Naturally, you can also stack international roaming packs if that’s not enough data, calls, or texts to cover your jetsetting. The Felix price is right, but while international travel is only slowly picking back up, the inclusions relegate this to more of a backup option rather than a viable mobile data companion, especially for longer international trips.

For comparison, here’s a snapshot of other popular SIM Only plans that include international allowances.

Low prices and decent inclusions tend to mean sacrifices in other areas, and Felix’s customer support isn’t as extensive as other telcos. For starters, there’s no customer forums and Felix’s Twitter presence appears to be non-existent. There is, however, a chat service (available seven days a week from 8am to 8pm AEDT) and online self-service, plus Felix has a responsive Facebook page.

Alternatively, you can contact support via the app, or leave a voicemail on 1300 801 956 to ask for someone to get back to you. Still, even without the option to contact someone directly over the phone, Felix Mobile customers seem to be content with the service so far, scoring an average of 4.6 out of 46 reviews in ProductReview.com.au.

Still, if you’re curious but cautious, you can take advantage of a seven-day “happiness guarantee”, which effectively translates to a seven-day trial, albeit one that you have to pay for upfront. If you’re unhappy within those first seven days, contact Felix for a full refund.

For more information on how we review mobile providers like Felix Mobile, check out this page.