Sat Phone recap

Gday all we contacted you guys,a while back, re a sat phone 9500 motorola,that we own, and how to dodge telstras grip and thankfully some of you replied with some excellent options which we have followed through on.With 3 weeks to go to our trip, we have taken up the $10 per month telstra deal to get the sim card,we have it "international roamed" and have placed it with sticky tape back into the phone the correct way. I then hold down the 0 button to get a + sign then dial the number prefixing it with 61 then the area code minus the prefixed 0 then our phone number to see if it works but to this point no luck. Are we doing something wrong or have telstra cottoned on since we first asked?
Would appreciate any feedback from our wise audience !
Cheers
Example of the number we dial if I havent made it clear
Turn phone on
It gets a signal then registers
Then I keep my finger on 0 until i get the +
Then dial 617then our phone number
It then tells us "emergency calls only"
then "check card"
Then i scratch my head and wave my fist at Telstra