[Papu]

Hi,

Here's how we got settled with internet and phones:

Mobilephone:
Using mobile phones is extremely expensive in NZ, which is why everyone has a landline.
We got 2 prepay Vodafone cards for wife and me. There's a plan called "bestmate" where you can choose a number that you can call all you want for 6 dollars / month, so we "bestmated" each other and are not paying anything - until we get to know more people here to call.

Internet: XNET was a really good tip from someone here in the forum:

We took XNET FUSION naked DSL

basic charge/month: 69 dollars
Every GB traffic: 1 dollar
Included: Phone-line (digital, not via telecom, but with the area code of the city you're living in - so local calls are free). Cheap calls via "worldexchange" service.
Setup cost: Free, although you need to buy a special modem.

We've been very happy with speed of internet and quality of phone.

[JandM]

Thank you very much for the information.

[captainxmas]

You forgot to mention that bestmates can not only call each other for free, they can text and video each other for free too.

[constablechuck]

The only downside to the Best mates plan is that you have to pay 89 cents per minute to call anyone else, instead of 49 cents per minute on the regular plan.

The cheapskate that I am I found a way around this, just my wife has the best mates plan, so I call her and let it ring twice before hanging up, she then sees my # on her caller ID and calls back.

So we still get to talk for free, I still only pay 49 cents per minute to call people and only one of us has to pay the $6 per month for best mates. I also use my wifes phone to check my voice mail for free :)

[Pooks]

Good tip ^

I had a quick scour of the current ISP choices and haven't seen one yet that includes everything I would like for a reasonable price.

If I understand correctly then the NZ market is about to enter the same local loop unbundling that happened here in the UK a few years ago and helped to shake up competition a bit. Hopefully the deals on offer will be a bit better by the time I touch down.

I already have quite high internet usage and it is bound to go up once I get there to keep in touch with relatives and friends. :roll

[KerryS]

Good tip ^

I had a quick scour of the current ISP choices and haven't seen one yet that includes everything I would like for a reasonable price.

If I understand correctly then the NZ market is about to enter the same local loop unbundling that happened here in the UK a few years ago and helped to shake up competition a bit. Hopefully the deals on offer will be a bit better by the time I touch down.

I already have quite high internet usage and it is bound to go up once I get there to keep in touch with relatives and friends. :roll

Local loop unbundling has already started, but it hasn't made a big (read if any) difference in the quality or amount of plans available or on offer. Possibly as the unbundling becomes more widespread it MAY happen, but I doubt it. The market here is too small for it to have the significant impact that it did in the UK, and the few companies that have stepped up are setting their price levels at similar rates to Telecom.

[Pooks]

Good point about market size. I keep forgetting about the population spread around NZ. I have already read a few reports about smaller ISP's being bought out by the bigger fish, hopefully there will still be a few to compete for custom. The relatively small population could actually help to force the big ISP's to offer good packages to gain a larger customer base.

[eternalkiwi]

With local loop unbundling and more recently naked DSL, things are slowly improving. Hopefully the promised investment by politicians will help fast track the snail paced progress to date.

Shawn