[Rose]

Dear all,

My fiance will need to get a new phone in NZ. We thought we might be able to get a good deal with a mobile phone and subscription plan in NZ (as we do in Sweden). But a quick look at the websites of Telecom and Vodafone didn't reveal any.

Should we buy a mobile phone in Thailand (stopover) before we get to NZ? What would we need to look out for?

Thanks for any advice!
Rose

[sarahw]

BUY ONE BEFORE YOU GET HERE!!! There is only one choice for phone company here - Vodafone. Telecom use different phones from the sim-card ones we use in Europe so you can't use them unless you buy a phone over here from them.

What you do here is you buy your phone & then subscribe to a plan or pay as you go - there's no fantastic deals like there are in Europe for getting phones at cheap prices - however, when you do buy a phone make sure you own the phone outright & haven't signed up to a plan of any kind.

Good luck!

[The Hodges]

We haven't arrived yet, but we've been told to take our existing phones (and they're not that flash!) with us, as NZ phones tend to be bricks ;), so it'll probably be worthwhile do the same. Just check that they'll work in NZ, or else it'll be a waste of time.

[Rose]

So if we bought a phone overseas we'd have to have a Vodafone subscription, is that right? Otherwise, if we bought a Telecom phone in NZ, we'd have to use a Telecom subscription?

How restrictive! I thought things were a bit more competitive in NZ!

[sarahw]

Yep that's about it Rose - if you want to do pay as you go you just pay $20 (unless its gone up in the 2 years since we got here!) for a Vodafone NZ sim card & then buy some talk-time & off you go, otherwise you can sign up to a monthly plan.

If you want to go with Telecom you go into a Telecom shop & buy a phone & plan/pay as you go time.

:o) You'll need to get used to having a lot less consumer choice living in NZ - sometimes there is only 1 company doing something & sometimes you can't find things that were easily available at home at all (certainly some business opportunities out here). However, in general you'll find you can get most things, just not the scale of choice you're used to. There are only 4 million of us & we're not exactly close to the nearest country compared with Europe (mind you I think the benefits of that outweigh the negatives!)

[The Hodges]

You don't have to buy a phone in contract. I got my last one off ebay and just put my sim card in it (after it was unlocked).

Get the phone you want and then you can choose the network you prefer when you arrive.

[Rose]

Right, the message is coming across loud and clear. Buy the hardware first.

In spite of my surprise at the phone system, I am a kiwi - I've just been gone 4 years and I remember lots of cool products such as phone and internet banking in NZ long before they were avaible overseas. So I just thought the mobile phone market would be similar. But you are right, it is a much smaller market in NZ.

Thanks everyone,
Rose

[The Hodges]

Yes. When we visited from the UK in 2003, chip and pin was already rolled out, and we hadn't even heard about it. It was all new to us.

However, I understand that some of this technology, such as c&p, is tested in the kiwi market first, to iron out any bugs before releasing it internationally - so in that respect NZ is ahead of other countries.

[voxel]

Right, the message is coming across loud and clear. Buy the hardware first.

Mainly because it's cheaper overseas. Any tri-band / quad-band GSM will do and you will be stuck with Vodafone.

[suzer]

Most important thing is to get the phone unlocked.

[Miggy]

Yep most phone models out here are ancient and u need 2 make sure that any u bring are tri/quad band if you want to use them. Pay-as-u-go is pretty cheap especially if u are still working in pounds!!