WhistleOut Awards

Judging Criteria

The WhistleOut Awards are aimed at finding the best providers for different phone and internet needs on a national level.

We have reviewed the biggest cross-section of providers possible, including the top 10 service providers in each category, many smaller providers, and the full range of phone manufacturers available in Australia. The top ten service providers typically cover 80% or more of Australia's phone and internet plans.

The WhistleOut Award categories for phone and internet plans are judged by awarding 3, 2 and 1 points to the providers of the three best plans in each category on a monthly basis, (July 2025 - June 2026). The award winners are the providers with the highest number of points at the end of the 12-month period. In case of a tie, winners are chosen based on the number of 1st positions, then 2nd positions, then 3rd positions they achieved in that category over the course of the year. A provider can receive points for multiple plans in a category if their plans best match the award criteria.

The Customer Satisfaction awards are judged based on consumer surveys that asked over a thousand Australians about their telco experiences. As with the telco plan categories, we have surveyed the biggest cross-section of providers possible, including the largest service providers in each category. For a provider to be considered for a Customer Satisfaction award, 50 survey responses were needed from respondents who had been customers for at least three months.

The mobile categories included Network Coverage, Customer Service, and Price. The internet categories included Internet Speed, Reliability, Customer Service, and Price. Respondents rated their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 was extremely dissatisfied and 5 was extremely satisfied. The overall most satisfied awards were measured by averaging each provider's category scores within mobile and internet, with each category given equal weighting, and the award going to the provider with the highest overall rating.

The WhistleOut phone awards are judged by our team of editorial experts who have reviewed the majority of new phones brought out over the last 12 months. Key judging considerations include price, performance, battery, screen, camera, design and the overall user experience.