[Smiler]

Happy Labour Weekend Everyone :clap

Does anyone recent experience of purchasing NZ mobile?

We got a NZ one for G when we arrived and I kept mine with its stack of txt credit for 'talking' to my little boy in UK.

It seems I've been paying £1.00 or so a txt and he hasn't received most of them and now is the time to top it up or get a NZ mobile.

I've read previous threads on here and looked at the multitude of NZ mobile phone sites (TWO) and I'm still a bit confused. I need to txt the UK which I understand now can only be received and returned by certain UK companies, and talk to other nz mobiles without selling a kidney.

Can anyone make it a bit clearer for me please? Which company are you with and which plan do you have? Does it work for you?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Deborah

[jubjub]

We have just got Vodafone pay as you go cards (put them in our unlocked UK mobiles), what kind of phone have you got, as unlocking it would be way cheaper than getting a new phone, and then you just get a sim card.

I think we get texts through OK, but only know folks that are on Orange in UK.

[kiwidebs]

Hi Deborah

My mum has her phone with Telecom NZ and I can receive her texts but she doesn't get mine back, my Auntie and my brother both text me and they're both with Vodaphone (I think) and I can text back no problems.

Hope this helps
Debs

[Miffy]

I'm with vodaphone here. (did as Jub jub did used UK phone got it unlocked and use vodaphone pay as you go)
Al my calls and texts have got throught to UK mobiles, even to UK mobiles, on a UK network, here in NZ!

Most of the deals you see advertised are for contracts. Apparently alot of the savvy teenagers have 2 mobiles one with telecom and one with vodaphone. They use the telecome during the week ($10 text etc) and then Vodaphone over the weekend (free calls between vodaphone mobiles) and pay hardly anything for their calls / texts.
But thats a bit compleicated for the likes of me! and there is a limited amount of people I know to call / text in NZ at the mo :laugh

[Smiler]

Miffy, Sal & Debs

I wish Scott was here. He could sell mobiles to well, telecom! I'm just getting :confused:

My T68 ericsson I'm pretty much sure is unlocked and if not would be easy to do so. (I guess) I don't have anyone to txt in NZ ( only his nibs) and only him to ring (so far) and he has a telecom mobi. All the rellies in Uk are on O2 or T mobile. Does vodafone work with the txting to Uk for all companies there or only certain ones?

Debs what company are you with in the UK?

Befuddled of Wellington.

[Timbo]

I havent tried it out internationaly Deborah, but if you have MSN messenger on your puter, you can send sms texts to mobies from it.

[Avalon]

Smiler,

If you have an erricson - it may mean you cant use Telecom as the technology is different. I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about Telecom anyway - but I have to say - Vodaphone have been very helpful. I too used a UK phone and have gone onto pay as you go (only they call it pre-paid here which confuses me no end!)

One thing to bear in mind with your choice is that calling or txting between Vodaphone and Telecom phones IN NZ is more expensive that between the same company. I Know that doesnt help with your UK problem (I have no experience to offer im sorry) but its worth thinking about for your calls here.

[kiwidebs]

Sorry Deborah, I can't help as I get sooo confuzzled about the whole thing myself. I'm with Orange here in the UK. The only person from NZ that I can't text is my Mum and she's with Telecom, the rest are with Vodaphone and I haven't had any problems.

Hope this helps
Debs

[Park City Partner]

Hi Folks. Not to be a dumb American or anything but what do you mean when you say "unlock"? My partner and I have one Verizon phone and one T-mobile. When we went to NZ earlier this year T-Mobile said my phone would work (brought it but never used it because of the expense) but of course they never mentioned buying a NZ sim card...not sure we would get a straight answer if we asked...

[StevieD]

Park City - when a phone is "locked", it is coded to only accept the SIM card for a particular network, in your case Verizon (Vodafone!). If you put another network SIM in it just won't work. To have it unlocked means that you can use the phone on any compatible network by using the SIM card for that network. This has to be done by software/SMS remote programming. It costs unfortunately.
The reason networks lock phones is that they want to claw back their investment in you, the customer. When they offer all the cheap deals, e.g. "look at the super phone from xxxxxxx we can give you" type of thing, they heavily subsidise the cost of the phone. This is why you can get the latest all singing/dancing gizmo for a few dollars instead of the hundreds that they really cost. Hope that helps!

I suspect, but don't quote me on this, that Telecom NZ is on a different type of system than Vodafone. I will have to look this one up. Await further info regarding the texting problems you are all experiencing. It may be due to the SMS platform being used by one or both companies not being set up to accept SMS from the other company. Will have a dig around.

Steve

[veronica]

Regardless of the network you are using I wouldn't have thought the system being used to send either a phone call or a text would have any effect on the person/number receiving it. I've sent texts to the UK from both my english mobile and NZ one with no problems (apart from operator error) and to loads of people on other networks. Check the number you are using have you programmed it into the phone and forgotten to take the 0 off between the international code and the no. easy enough to do. did it with one of ours when changing the numbers in the phonebook memory bit.

[Park City Partner]

Thanks Steve. I appreciate the explanation. I am still assuming that it will be cheaper to have our phones unlocked than to buy new phones in NZ. We will look into this...though we have become so cell phone dependant there is some appeal to going without for a bit. When we were there earlier this year for 6 weeks we were phoneless...inconvenient on a few occassions but kind of nice.

[Dinnaefash]

Here's my tuppence worth - this drove me to distraction last week!!

We brought hubbie's mobile with us from the UK. Bought a Vodafone sim and have been using it (pay as you go) with no problems. Hubbie decided, in his wisdom, that since coverage in NZ was a bit patchy, maybe our 2nd phone should be a Telecom one, then we'd always have a signal...

Got a Telecom pay as you go, merrily texted family and friends in UK to let them know my new number. Got no responses... texted them again... still no responses. I got so worried I called them to check everything was ok!! When I realised that I could send texts to the UK but wasn't receiving any I called Telecom. Took about 3 go's before I spoke to someone who knew what they were talking about. Turns out that Telecom only has reciprocal agreements with about 4 other companies worldwide; Vodafone has around 140. Hence your Telecom mobile may be able to send texts overseas but won't necessarily receive any, whilst Vodafone will.

Needless to say I took the useless thing back and switched it for a Vodafone one ;-) Finding it pretty cost effective for keeping in touch; only 20c per text.

[Smiler]

Steve

I read on telecom nz site that it's to do with them not having a reply path with certain Uk mobi companies. From memory it's only O2 and T mobi that supports it. Orange, etc don't and to be honest I'm not sure i understand at all about reply paths at all.

Dinnefash, you've summed up what's been happening to me on my Uk mobile and when i have tried to use G's telecom one. So am going to try with a friends NZ vodaphone tomorrow and see if Scott gets my message. :clap :clap

Did you get your Vodaphone pre pay sim thingy from the Vodaphone shop? Is that 20c text rate to Uk mobi's as well? I won't mind that at all and will put up with the 99c call charges to NZ telecom mobiles.

Thanks for all your help on this one guys. Really didn't want to go and spend money and buy the wrong thing.

Deborah

[Avalon]

Having checked this with hubby - heres the lowdown on the different mobile technologies and what it means for people bringing mobiles with them from home:

Telecom uses CDMA technology for thier mobile network. This is the same system in use in the USA. So if you have a phone that works in America - you can use that on the Telecom system (assuming the phone is not locked) once you get a Telecom SIM.

Vodaphone uses GSM technology, which is what we use in the Uk and Europe. So for us Brits, if we want to use the phones we brought from home, we need to get a Vodaphone SIM card.

This means that an American phone wont work on the Vodaphone network here, and a UK phone wont work on teh Telecom Network.

Utterly irrelevant if you buying a swanky new phone - you get to choose!

Hope that helps some :D

[Park City Partner]

Ah, very helpful! I was thinking that we would use our US cells with Vodaphone since it seems people like that service better. But we will probably go with Telecom since we don't plan to use them that much.

This forum is GREAT! Thanks all.

[StevieD]

Great, all the info on here now. The agreements with countries/companies is a thorny one. (Roaming agreements) It has been a bone of contention with a lot of users in the UK because mobile telcos use their 'monopoly' of their network to charge more money for calls from other operators to go through their system. (Even though the majority of it's network is either BT or other network providers!) It is the TERMINATION point that the mobile telcos use to charge.
They also need agreements with other operators in order for those links to be used. I didn't realise that Telecom NZ had so few.... maybe they need to get out and about a bit more and get those contracts signed. Maybe when they realise that they are losing lots of business........
Good luck folks.

Steve

[Avalon]

Telecom honestly dont give a stuff about what is good for thier customers. Trust me on this. What is funny is that the customers they care most about are the Mobile ones - because they want to kick Vodaphones butt back to the UK.

The main problem with Telecom is that it is (like BT) a former state monopoly, and it still thinks it is, so its Attitude is (litterally) "We are Telecom - you HAVE to come to us". And this applies to thier staff as well as thier customers. They also have no concept of "the world at large" - for them they are a big fish in a small pond, and they really dont get that globally they arent even playing with the Plankton.

To see an amusing rant (which I didnt write BTW):
http://www.telecomm.co.nz/

(The language gets a bit "ripe")

[Dinnaefash]

Deborah,

The 20c rate is a flat rate for texts, doesn't matter where you are texting to ;-) (That's certainly the deal for pay as you go; it may be that if you are on a plan you get something different / a different rate.)