Forced off pay-as-you-go data plan, what's good now?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Forced off pay-as-you-go data plan, what's good now?

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#954775 19-Dec-2013 12:42

wongtop: So when exactly does the pay as you go data plan end?

It's gone I think. Just logged in and check my two T-Sticks and any reference to the old 500 Meg and 2Gig plans has gone. Not a biggy for me though as they don't get used much at present.

Regards,

Old3eyes

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jonb

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#954794 19-Dec-2013 13:09

Would the Telecom $19 prepay pack be good for you?
500MB, unlimited texts and 100 minutes per month.

edit: I see you already know about that, it was just that you were automatically moved onto the $15 for 500MB package.

bazzer

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#954806 19-Dec-2013 13:37

Bugger. I really only used to use this when I went on holiday (e.g. New Years). I better check it out tonight.

surfisup1000

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#954811 19-Dec-2013 13:49

jonb: Would the Telecom $19 prepay pack be good for you?
500MB, unlimited texts and 100 minutes per month.

edit: I see you already know about that, it was just that you were automatically moved onto the $15 for 500MB package.

The point is, that this was a truly casual plan.

You could chuck in $20 every time you go on holiday and get 500mb...if you didn't use the whole amount, it would stick around until the next holiday.

But, they are trying to get you on more regular payments even when not using.

It really makes 3g ipads a waste of time .

Or, they could have bought in shared dataplans which would have made this irrelevant to me.

The whole point is that you don't need to tether to your smartphone to get the net.

I'll simply be dumping the sim and use tethering in future so telecom will lose revenue in my case.

Yyrael

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#954838 19-Dec-2013 14:10

scheduler: Yes I got that text bit of a shame. I moved to the $3 for 30mb which will do what I need. Its not my primary data device. The other option is the Telecom $9.00 for 100mb option If you need to you can always by a 1 month boost of $6.00 for 50mb when you need. That is the 1 good thing of telecoms prepay offering they alow you to literally design your own plan

Also using the new Telecom app you can add the one off data really easily

surfisup1000

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#954904 19-Dec-2013 15:21

Yyrael:
scheduler: Yes I got that text bit of a shame. I moved to the $3 for 30mb which will do what I need. Its not my primary data device. The other option is the Telecom $9.00 for 100mb option If you need to you can always by a 1 month boost of $6.00 for 50mb when you need. That is the 1 good thing of telecoms prepay offering they alow you to literally design your own plan

Also using the new Telecom app you can add the one off data really easily

but, if you don't use the ipad for a few months, and then want to look up a couple of webpages.....bang $6.00!!!

Surely they are going backwards in flexibility.

maslink

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#954981 19-Dec-2013 16:40

I recommend the 2degrees rollover data plan. I have a similar use pattern on my iPad - not much at all for a month or more, then I'll travel for work for a few days and blow through a few hundred MB. Rollover data works well - I also purchased a 12GB pack up front, which allowed my rollover data to get into credit, so After 8 months I have a healthy buffer.

Was initially worried about coverage, but as the carryover data still applies when roaming on Vodafone, this hasn't been an issue.

Yyrael

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#954986 19-Dec-2013 16:55

surfisup1000:
Yyrael:
scheduler: Yes I got that text bit of a shame. I moved to the $3 for 30mb which will do what I need. Its not my primary data device. The other option is the Telecom $9.00 for 100mb option If you need to you can always by a 1 month boost of $6.00 for 50mb when you need. That is the 1 good thing of telecoms prepay offering they alow you to literally design your own plan

Also using the new Telecom app you can add the one off data really easily

but, if you don't use the ipad for a few months, and then want to look up a couple of webpages.....bang $6.00!!!

Surely they are going backwards in flexibility.

If you are on prepaid or one bill you can still use data at the casual rate of $0.20 per MB and you can still get $1/day for 10MB on smart prepaid. It's also possible on prepaid to get a $3.00 30mb plan :)

mattwnz

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#954991 19-Dec-2013 17:07

I am not sure if I am on that plan or not for my ipad. But the ipad doesn't receive TXT messages, so telecom had better also contact people in another way with full details of the contract change. They do seem to make it very complicated, because it took me quite a while to work out exactly how the old plan worked. At the moment I believe it is 10cents per MB casual, and you have to topup at least once a year, which is great for people who only use it for email on an ipad. I can't really see any reason why they would change it, because it will just mean that people will change provider, as you can get better deals than that. People who use it for more than just email would have already been on a plan which provides more data.

Sirius

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#955666 20-Dec-2013 23:07

surfisup1000:

The point is, that this was a truly casual plan.

You could chuck in $20 every time you go on holiday and get 500mb...if you didn't use the whole amount, it would stick around until the next holiday.

But, they are trying to get you on more regular payments even when not using.

...

I'll simply be dumping the sim and use tethering in future so telecom will lose revenue in my case.

This. I could put in $20 and it'd last for more than 6 months. Once or twice I had to top up because the credit was going to expire otherwise

It's also probably this same reason Telecom eventually dumped the plan. Many people I explained the plan to mentioned how Telecom can't make much money from this model, and I agree. I suspect it was a loss-leader to get people onto the then-new XT network.

I'm currently tending towards the Vodafone $19 prepay 4G plan with 500MB, 100mins, and unlimited txts, since it's pretty much the same as 2degrees' and Telecom's $19 all-rounder offerings, but I have a Nexus 5 coming that I can use 4G with. 2degrees have yet to roll out 4G and Telecom wants you to buy a 4G phone from them to get a free 4G upgrade, as far as I can tell from their website.

I unfortunately am also biased towards Vodafone since me and my family all use them (my T-Stick was purely for data, obviously), so I wouldn't be ostracised for making Txt5K useless for them

wongtop:

So when exactly does the pay as you go data plan end?

My plan looks like it ends 13 Jan, 2014, since the txt says I'll be paying upfront from 13 Feb, 2014, and I'll get one month free.

Full txt below (sneaky wording, too

Telecom (9802):

FROM TELECOM:
We're changing your 500MB data from $29.95/mth to $15/mth. The first month's on us because you'll pay upfront frm 13.2.14. More: telecom.co.nz/ext

mattwnz

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#955668 20-Dec-2013 23:18

They would be low usage cusomters, so wouldn't be costing them very much at all. Some money is better then no money from a customer, or having a customer is better than losing one.

Still have not found out if this applies to people who use for ipads, and can't receive txt mesages.

I see that 2 degrees offers 50MB plans for $6 per month and 100MB ones for $10, which may suit people who use it just for occasional email. Not particularly good value for the data, but probably the cheapest option for low users.

Sirius

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#955673 20-Dec-2013 23:51

True, especially people like surfisup and me who are now considering other carriers. I was starting to get annoyed with carrying two phones around though (on different 3G bands, no less), so it was only a matter of time...

I appreciate the suggestions for the low-cost data packs, but having looked a bit more into other plans that are now available, the txt/data/voice bundles seem to be more worthwhile. For example, 2degrees' 50MB pack is $6, unlimited txt is $10 (why did I stick with TxtNZ for so long..), but for $3 more you get 450MB more data and 90 minutes call time. Sure, if you'll never use more than 50MB and never call, $16 is better than $19, but given mobile internet usage trends now compared to 2009 when the 500MB pay-as-you-go plan came out, $19 seems a "safer" option. That's just me though; I'll admit I'm a bit behind the times with regards to using internet on my phone compared to my friends.

If no one has anything bad to say about Vodafone's prepay 4G plan, I may decide on that... after I use up my 1 month's free data of course