In 2021, there has never been more competition for the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers wanting calls, text and data, with Circles.Life's deal for students here, and detailed below.

National voice calls and texts are unlimited. Some plans from some telcos and MVNOs offer a selection of calls and texts to international numbers. Some offer VoLTE and VoWIFI for improved calls and coverage, some don't.

There are also the networks, with Telstra's well known to be the biggest and best in Australia, followed by Optus, and Vodafone close behind, with the differences only really apparent when you go to rural and regional areas of Australia, where Telstra has the most towers and widest coverage.

Of course there are areas in the cities where there can be congestion, or black spots, which make one telco better than another, but in general, for typical city dwellers, any of the networks will do the job more than admirably enough.

This brings us to the amount of data your plan provides, the speed with which you can download it, the price you pay for your plan, and whether there are any loyalty schemes that can give you further discounts on your plan or discounts on other things.

Telstra has its Telstra Plus membership plan, which lets you trade points or get discounts on various gadgets and gizmos - I was able to save a couple of hundred dollars on the purchase of an Apple Watch Series 6, and pay it off over twelve months by adding it to my iPhone 12 Pro Max phone plan.

There are also deals like Vodafone/TPG-owned MVNO, felix, that offer unlimited calls and text in Australia and unlimited 4G at maximum speeds of 20Mbps for just $35 per month, which might is a great deal for anyone who never wants to worry about data again, even if there are promos on offer.

Even so, Circles.Life has been very successful with its referral promo codes that have given chances to win prices and discounts, and when one promo ends, new ones arrive.

Its latest promo is aimed at students, with Circles.Life noting the chaos that was 2020 affected students "more than most as they weren’t able to form all the new connections and have all the usual fun of starting university".

Calling its latest deal "unbeatable" for uni students, the deals gives more data for less money so students can "stay connected with family, friends and new acquaintances, just in time for O-week."

Of course, Circles.Life's data comes via the 3G and 4G Optus network, and there are no limits on speed other than however congested or otherwise the towers are in the area that you're connecting from, with the company also promising other "surprises" to come in the future.

As an MVNO, there are no contracts - it's just a prepaid plan you can switch from at any time, so if someone has a better deal, you can switch - or you can switch back, it's up to you.

• The company is offering 100GB of data (plus unlimited national calls and text) for $30, a discount of $8 per month over the next 12 months, with the code 100STUDENT.
• The 60GB plan (plus unlimited national calls and text) is just $22 per month, a discount of $6 per month over the next 12 months, with the code 60STUDENT.
• Then you can also get 8GB (plus unlimited national calls and text) for just $14 per month, a discount of $4 per month over the next 12 months, with the code 8STUDENT.

There's obviously no need to worry that the plan will revert back to a more expensive price in twelve months - by then there'll be new deals that you can switch to.

Heck, Circles.Life might even need to offer an unlimited 4G data plan by then like felix is doing today, so the amount of competition for your dollar is unlikely to ease up anytime soon!

So, whichever way you go, it's good to know great deals are out there, whether from the telcos themselves or their MVNO partners, so make sure you're on the right deal and that you're never paying too much.

You can also see the deals by clicking on the image below.