mobile phones - which network

[upsidedown]

Having now organised to get my phone unlocked in preperation for our arrival in NZ we now have reached the question of which network? Have read some of the stuff on the providers websites but would like a real persons perspective. We know we want to be pay as you go. Both myself and OH use our phones mostly to text and call each others and others occasionally, so what would people suggest? What's coverage like [we will be based kapiti coast, hutt area] and general costs? Thanks in advance for all the excellent advice.

[Duncan74]

From the UK, with what I assume will be UTMS900 phones then Vodaphone is fine. If you don't use the mobiles for data then it probably doesn't matter too much. I'm on PAYG for the first time ever, been with orange contract since 1997 (you can imagine they were chuffed when I called to quit my £50per month contract) so the whole pre-pay was new to me. Been pretty easy and not had any problems. They do a $2 maximum call charge back to the UK too which is quite handy, although I use Skype as the primary way to keep in touch with home anyway. There are coverage maps on the websites so you can check what it will be like. XT is currently being relaunched with an advertising campaign admitting that they had problems, but claiming that it now works fine.

[IanW99]

From the UK, with what I assume will be UTMS900 phones then Vodaphone is fine.
...
There are coverage maps on the websites so you can check what it will be like. XT is currently being relaunched with an advertising campaign admitting that they had problems, but claiming that it now works fine.

So what is wrong with 2degrees, certainly the cheapest for pay and go?

Ian

[Duncan74]

So what is wrong with 2degrees, certainly the cheapest for pay and go?

Ian

Sadly you can't send/receive to UK vodaphone (which is who my wife is with, so a bit important to me, may not be to others). Also it's 44c a minute to call the UK, which is half the per minute rate of vodaphone, but it doesn't have a cap. So for short calls then it's better, but for the calls I make then I'd be much worse off. Again, you need to consider the specifics of how you'll use your phone. For example I used 80mb of data last month, and I think this will be fairly typical. With 2degrees that would be $40, but with vodaphone then it's free for the first 3 months, then only $15 for a 100mb bundle per month.

So I'd suggest not 'certainly the cheapest for pay and go' for me.

(note that your UK phones will almost certainly not work with the 'rural' XT network as that uses 850 and not 900Mhz. In towns then you get the 2100 which is common accross XT and vodaphone (and UK networks), but out in the sticks then your 900mhz phone won't work for data.)

[IanW99]

Sadly you can't send/receive to UK vodaphone (which is who my wife is with, so a bit important to me, may not be to others). Also it's 44c a minute to call the UK, which is half the per minute rate of vodaphone, but it doesn't have a cap. So for short calls then it's better, but for the calls I make then I'd be much worse off. Again, you need to consider the specifics of how you'll use your phone. For example I used 80mb of data last month, and I think this will be fairly typical. With 2degrees that would be $40, but with vodaphone then it's free for the first 3 months, then only $15 for a 100mb bundle per month.

So I'd suggest not 'certainly the cheapest for pay and go' for me.
...

What you mean is you can't send/receive texts to Vodafone UK, you can of course phone them (and no doubt they will resolve this issue).

If you used 80MB on 2 degrees then it would have cost you $12 (for 100MB assuming you bought their data packs?).

You are of course correct that under some circumstances / usage patterns it can work out cheaper on other networks, but for the type of usage that the OP asked about 2 degrees would appear a better choice, which you didn't even mention (was just curious if there was a reason for the ommission).

Ian

[Duncan74]

The omission was because I'm not a regulated mobile phone advisor. All I did was try to be helpful and post a response bassed on what I knew, I didn't realise that I was going to have to defend my reasoning and explain any ommissions.

[kejktfc]

Went for payg on 2 Degrees, with the $6 50mb package and have been mightly impressed. Daughter also had a problem with getting internet on her phone, it was on Orange back in the UK prior to unlocking, its an LG Cookie, and they couldn't have been more helpful and professional.

Whilst they were unable to 'fix' the problem straight away they passed it on to their technical department who responded when they stated they would ring, and finally sorted.

With regards Vodophone, I am trying to sort out home line, internet and Sky with them at the moment, I have been pulling my hair out for the last week, totally inept and poor in follow ups.

I would add, the above is my experience only and could differ with each individual.


kejktfc

[mattandjax]

We're both on Vodafone, I (Matt) am on the iphone 40 plan ($40 a month) and Jacqui is on the Starter 600 plan ($30 a month).

As well a data these come with around 30mins to any network and 300/600 any network texts. The best thing is that they include 1 free best mate which means we can text / phone each other as much as we want (and as we don't really know anyone else this is great!).

The cheapest Vodafone package would be the Easy20 which is $16.95 + best mate making it $22.95 a month, this would get you 20 any network minutes + 100 anynetwork texts.

For us as we call, text each other so much the best mate deal is saving us a lot of money!! However we don't use it for international calls as we find the $2.1c a minute calling cards back to the UK the best deal for us.

Also the Vodafone coverage seems really good and it was really easy to setup.

M&J

[mattandjax]

Went for payg on 2 Degrees, with the $6 50mb package and have been mightly impressed. Daughter also had a problem with getting internet on her phone, it was on Orange back in the UK prior to unlocking, its an LG Cookie, and they couldn't have been more helpful and professional.

Whilst they were unable to 'fix' the problem straight away they passed it on to their technical department who responded when they stated they would ring, and finally sorted.

With regards Vodophone, I am trying to sort out home line, internet and Sky with them at the moment, I have been pulling my hair out for the last week, totally inept and poor in follow ups.

I would add, the above is my experience only and could differ with each individual.


kejktfc

We know that feeling, we were trying to connect to Slingshot and for some reason they just wouldn't disconnect the line for the previous tenants (which they needed to do to start the install process).

It was amazing we could make as many calls as we wanted on someone else's account! despite us and the other people calling they refused to rush it through eventually putting some lame passcode on it to stop us using us. They were talking about disconnection on the 13th of July (apparently they only do it once a month!!)

However it was disconnected a couple of days after the passcode was put on and the next day someone from Chorus came round and had us up and running in a couple of hours.

Loving Slingshot and the free offpeak downloading, very useful!! we are going to move to the naked dsl package where you don't have a phone line and use their italk VOIP package which gives you 500 minutes a month back to the UK. That should save us about $30 a month.

Matt

[upsidedown]

Thanks for all the advice, didn't mean to start an argument but as always all responses from different people in different circumstances are welcome. Didn't realise that my UK phone won't work in rural areas of NZ and as we are heading to a semi-rural area may need to have a rethink and get a new phone once we arrive. Not going to be downloading data have never used the WAP feature on my current phone. one reason I don't know how to or how it works. The best mate package sounds good as at least to begin with we will only know each other, plus as Duncan mentioned and coverage is really good. Thanks again for the advice, anymore from anyone else would be greatly apprecited.