[Aug & Feb]

A friend told me that 1 min of phone call to a mobile phone is NZ$1.00 per minute. That is very very expensive.

Only 2 telephone companies in NZ:- Vodaphone and Telecom New Zealand.

I thought NZ is part of WTO...and they should allow more telecommunication companies in so as to increase competition and lower the costs of phone charges !!!

Any advice on what are the various methods to lower phone charges in NZ ?

[veronica]

unfortunately lots of things in NZ are expensive, we use a phone card (rate saver) to phone the UK and really we should use one for long distance national calls here too. Local calls are free. and we use the mobile as sparingly as possible, both calls from and calls to. there may be other cost effective telephone things about but we haven't looked into them.

[katandbob]

wow your kidding :-(

We were going to bring our camera phones but reading this I bet thats Really expensive!!!

oh well I suppose the kids will be safe enough not to keep tabs on them 24/7 like over here!

[veronica]

umm forgot to say free texting weekends

[Miffy]

To buy mobile phones is expensive.
You don't get a free one with the phone package, so bring your phones out with you.

Vodaphone to vodaphone or Telecom to telecom calling is not that expensive,, but called vodaphone to telecom (or vice verser) is.

Local rate calling on a land line (ie Dunedin number to a Dunedin number) on telecom is free!
Calling the UK is 50c a minute but capped at $6 for an hour. So once you pass the $6 mark (12 minutes) you may as well stay on for the hour as its the same cost.

However the landline rental is a joke $49.00 a month just to get a line call on top.
If you want broad band is ANOTHER $49.00 on top. :( :( there are cheaper dial options but I can't bear to go back to such a slow clunky system ...

Competition is allowed and encourraged but the population is so small I'm not sure a 3rd mobile provider would be profitable enough .

[Avalon]

Boo Hiss! Hate Telecom!

If you bring your phones from the UK, you have to use Vodaphone as the Telecom technology is different.

It costs $35 to get a pay as you go starter pack with $5 of calls on it (which is increaded to $15 if you fill in an online registration.

Rememebr calls to the other provioder is more expensive, so try and get the same phones for all the family.

Telecom are trying to corner the mobile market, and will do anything to get mobile customers - to the detriment of any other Telecom customers. They really dont give a toss about getting you cheap landlines or internet - they just want to grab vodaphone mobile customers. (apparently)

We got calls to the Uk at $5 for 2 hours - on Anytime Plus - it also means you can call anytime of day - really useful for yakking to mum!

We are back to dial up for internet as there is no broadband here ( :( ) and we have gone with Infogen at $27 a month for unlimited access ( we actually get another $4 off that for being with genesis for leccy bills)

[Singel]

Hello Aug & Feb,

Have a look at this...................
In today's paper, a broadband provider Woosh, launching phone service :
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=%1E%FB%F8%C5%28%B5%BCE

Woosh website :
http://www.woosh.com/ContentClient/WhyWoosh/WhyWooshOverview.aspx

[Avalon]

Actually, just reading this again - Veronica mentioned Phone cards, and from what ive seen, they do seem to be much cheaper for calling certain countries. Telecom does some really good capped rates to the Uk and US, ($5 for 2 hours) but its much higher for other countries ($12 for 2 hours to south Africa for example). I rememebr reading somewhere that phone cards were much better for calling to asian countries.

I honestly cant remember if Malaysia was mentioned, but it really might be worth considering if you want to phone home!

[katandbob]

thanks guys, we were going to upgrade our sony erricson K750i at xmas to 2mg pic phones, we have noticed that they arent on the NZ mobile sites do NZ have pic messages?

kat

[StevieD]

On that score, make sure the phone u get is usable in NZ. A tri/quad band fone should be o.k.
And if u in UK and you get your fone on one of the cheapy contract deals, make sure you get your fone unlocked. This is only a requirement if you got your fone from say Orange and it is locked to their network.
Any probs pm me. I think I found the cheapest place anywhere to get the fone unlocked.

Steve

[Miffy]

thanks guys, we were going to upgrade our sony erricson K750i at xmas to 2mg pic phones, we have noticed that they arent on the NZ mobile sites do NZ have pic messages?

kat

The vidoe phones have just been released over here.
General camera /picture phones have been out for a while.

[Avalon]

Telecom are currently running a poll to see what people prefer as a "deal" next weekend. You can choose between a $10 talkathon to the Uk, Oz, and US (some others i think), or 99c for upto 2 hours national call.

I have to say - I wait with baited breath for the $10 taklkathon, email friends in the uk, and then arrange times to call and chat.

Get voting if you are interested.