[LesleyS]

Hi My OH is coming out for a visit from the UK in 2 weeks and would like to communicate back to us all his news via phone. How will this work and is it a costly exercise?:confused:

[Kim39]

Just request International roaming from OH's phone provider. It can work out expensive though. Also he must have a tri-band phone or above.

Kim

[southparkers]

If he has got access to a land line he can buy a phone card, we use one all the time if we cant contact someone on msn or by email, I think its 5 cents a minute.

[Juniper]

check out this thread -

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6136&page=2&highlight=mghz

Your phone may work in NZ if it has 900 MHz as one of the "bands." It should be a GSM network phone, not CDMA. You'll find details in the above thread :-)

[Ana&Steve]

We called our service (Tmobile)and asked them to activate for the time we were in NZ. We kept it off most of the time, but used it to book hotels for the towns we were heading for. (Got the #s out of Lonely Planet Guide to NZ) Once, I called my mom in the States for 10minutes, and when I got the bill later, I found that the call cost me $50us:eek: . I will probably stick to email this next trip:nice1
Ana

[willowshouse]

What about ..

If he has a phone which is 'unlocked' then he can just buy a Vodafone NZ sim card - $30? (from memory) which includes $10 talk time - correct me someone?.

Vodafone advertise off-peak calls at $0.49 per min to UK .. about £0.18 currently and off-peak is 7pm to 7am which is ideal if he wants to catch you in the mornings. Or he could use his Vodafone phone together with a calling card (like Chi-tel) who charge about $0.05 per minute. You can buy Chi-tel cards in any dairy/newsagent/petrol station.

[willowshouse]

What about ..

If he has a phone which is 'unlocked' then he can just buy a Vodafone NZ sim card - $30? (from memory) which includes $10 talk time - correct me someone?.

Vodafone advertise off-peak calls at $0.49 per min to UK .. about £0.18 currently and off-peak is 7pm to 7am which is ideal if he wants to catch you in the mornings. Or he could use his Vodafone phone together with a calling card (like Chi-tel) who charge about $0.05 per minute. You can buy Chi-tel cards in any dairy/newsagent/petrol station.

[gpbenton]

Assuming he his staying in hotels with broadband access, and has a laptop, seriously consider using Skype. www.skype.com

Skype to Skype calls are free, and I have been surprised at the quality.

[real_sunfire]

Hi Lesley,
AS Willowshouse has indicated probably the best bet is to buy a NZ SIM card if your OH has a tri-band phone.

We brought our NZ SIM cards from a company called 0044 - see http://www.0044.co.uk/NewZealand-Index.htm for details.

Rgds.,
Nick.

[Trigirl]

its a lot cheaper to buy them here in NZ so unless he needs to have a NZ number to give people before he goes I'd just wait and get it in Auckland airport on arrival.