Is telecom planning a smartphone plan upgrade anytime soon?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Is telecom planning a smartphone plan upgrade anytime soon?

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ajw

1932 posts

Uber Geek

#668350 6-Aug-2012 14:51

NonprayingMantis:
ajobbins: I cringe every time I look at the prices for mobile usage in NZ. I've gotten very used to my Australian plan.

$30 a month gets me 1GB of data, unlimited on net calls any time and $550 of 'credit' to spend.

That credit equates to about 400 national minutes, or 200 minutes Aus to NZ, or 2000 texts, or any combination of. The next plan up ($45) would get me unlimited texts too - as well as $750 of 'credit' and 1.5GB of data - but I simply don't use enough of my $30 plan.

That's on a post paid no term contract.

You know what I cringe at? How people constantly think they are being ripped off in NZ even if they aren’t.

Let’s say you split your SMS and voice down the middle with that ozzie plan. That means you pay $30 AUD - (A smidge under $40NZD) – for 1GB, 200 mins, 1000 txts.

By contrast for the same price ($39 NZD) 2Degrees (on a no-term postpaid contract) gives you 220 minutes (including the bonus ones you get every month), 2500 txts, and 1.1GB. In other words you get more txts and more data on the NZ plan, and the minutes is only better with the ozzie plan if you do a fair amount of on-net calling.

Not only that but you don’t have to d*ck around working out how much each minute costs on your so-called ‘$550 of value’ which, quite frankly, is an utterly BS way of looking at mobile phone plans.

Does any NZ mobile provider offer in the NZ dollar equivalent

Unlimited Voice, texts, and 4GIG of data for the equivalent of $AUD39.95

http://www.amaysim.com.au/mobile-plans/amaysim-unlimited.html

dolsen

1476 posts

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#668357 6-Aug-2012 15:11

NonprayingMantis:
ajobbins: I cringe every time I look at the prices for mobile usage in NZ. I've gotten very used to my Australian plan.

.

You know what I cringe at? How people constantly think they are being ripped off in NZ even if they aren’t.

We were over in Australia and wanted some data for our navigation etc. We had a look around and chose the Woolworths prepaid plan and it worked out really well.
My wife and I both have android smartphones and wanted to be able to keep using them. We also have an old ideos as well that we put the sim into and enabled the portable hotspot on that device and turned off cellular data on our main phones.
With this setup, we could both continue to use data on our main phones (via wifi) whilst having our normal numbers for incoming calls.

The Sim cost $2, and, we paid for a $29(AUD) topup. With the $29 topup - that is valid for 45 days, we get
$250 for any network calls,
$250 for any optus / woolworths calls.
and, most importantly
5GB of data!

I'm a happy user of 2 degrees, but, I'm sorry, none of their plans are near that.

http://www.woolworthsmobile.com.au/woolworths-prepaid-cap

ajw

1932 posts

Uber Geek

#668367 6-Aug-2012 15:23

dolsen:
NonprayingMantis:
ajobbins: I cringe every time I look at the prices for mobile usage in NZ. I've gotten very used to my Australian plan.

.

You know what I cringe at? How people constantly think they are being ripped off in NZ even if they aren’t.

We were over in Australia and wanted some data for our navigation etc. We had a look around and chose the Woolworths prepaid plan and it worked out really well.
My wife and I both have android smartphones and wanted to be able to keep using them. We also have an old ideos as well that we put the sim into and enabled the portable hotspot on that device and turned off cellular data on our main phones.
With this setup, we could both continue to use data on our main phones (via wifi) whilst having our normal numbers for incoming calls.

The Sim cost $2, and, we paid for a $29(AUD) topup. With the $29 topup - that is valid for 45 days, we get
$250 for any network calls,
$250 for any optus / woolworths calls.
and, most importantly
5GB of data!

I'm a happy user of 2 degrees, but, I'm sorry, none of their plans are near that.

http://www.woolworthsmobile.com.au/woolworths-prepaid-cap

Another example of cheaper mobile pricing in Aussie.

http://www.redbullmobile.com.au/pre-paid/sim-packs/access-365/

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#668385 6-Aug-2012 15:35

ajw:
NonprayingMantis:
ajobbins: I cringe every time I look at the prices for mobile usage in NZ. I've gotten very used to my Australian plan.

$30 a month gets me 1GB of data, unlimited on net calls any time and $550 of 'credit' to spend.

That credit equates to about 400 national minutes, or 200 minutes Aus to NZ, or 2000 texts, or any combination of. The next plan up ($45) would get me unlimited texts too - as well as $750 of 'credit' and 1.5GB of data - but I simply don't use enough of my $30 plan.

That's on a post paid no term contract.

You know what I cringe at? How people constantly think they are being ripped off in NZ even if they aren’t.

Let’s say you split your SMS and voice down the middle with that ozzie plan. That means you pay $30 AUD - (A smidge under $40NZD) – for 1GB, 200 mins, 1000 txts.

By contrast for the same price ($39 NZD) 2Degrees (on a no-term postpaid contract) gives you 220 minutes (including the bonus ones you get every month), 2500 txts, and 1.1GB. In other words you get more txts and more data on the NZ plan, and the minutes is only better with the ozzie plan if you do a fair amount of on-net calling.

Not only that but you don’t have to d*ck around working out how much each minute costs on your so-called ‘$550 of value’ which, quite frankly, is an utterly BS way of looking at mobile phone plans.

Does any NZ mobile provider offer in the NZ dollar equivalent

Unlimited Voice, texts, and 4GIG of data for the equivalent of $AUD39.95

http://www.amaysim.com.au/mobile-plans/amaysim-unlimited.html

Don’t know. Probably not. The point was the plan that ajobbin was suggesting was so awesome compared to NZ was actually worse than what you could buy in NZ

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#668406 6-Aug-2012 15:58

dolsen:
NonprayingMantis:
ajobbins: I cringe every time I look at the prices for mobile usage in NZ. I've gotten very used to my Australian plan.

.

You know what I cringe at? How people constantly think they are being ripped off in NZ even if they aren’t.

We were over in Australia and wanted some data for our navigation etc. We had a look around and chose the Woolworths prepaid plan and it worked out really well.
My wife and I both have android smartphones and wanted to be able to keep using them. We also have an old ideos as well that we put the sim into and enabled the portable hotspot on that device and turned off cellular data on our main phones.
With this setup, we could both continue to use data on our main phones (via wifi) whilst having our normal numbers for incoming calls.

The Sim cost $2, and, we paid for a $29(AUD) topup. With the $29 topup - that is valid for 45 days, we get
$250 for any network calls,
$250 for any optus / woolworths calls.
and, most importantly
5GB of data!

I'm a happy user of 2 degrees, but, I'm sorry, none of their plans are near that.

http://www.woolworthsmobile.com.au/woolworths-prepaid-cap

Apart from the issues with the confusion around including all this so-called ‘value' the really sneaky thing with that is hidden in the Ts and Cs:

“Credit expires on recharge or after 45 days, whichever is the earlier.”

So in other words if you use up your ‘$250 of value’ on things like calls (89cpm with 39c flagfall, charged min+min) or txts (29cpt) or a combination of both and need to recharge after, say, only 15 days, then any data you haven’t used yet disappears. In other words, you need to manage your usage perfectly to avoid losing heaps of the stuff you have paid for.

So lets say you split your usage down the middle, spending $125 of your ‘value’ on txts and half on calls (split 50/50 optus/other) with an average length of 2 mins.

That means you plan gives you around 400 txts and around 50 mins of calls to optus and 50 mins of calls elsewhere (around 100 mins total). If you use up your $250 ‘value’ and need to recharge to make any calls or txts then whoops your data just expired too!

This wouldn;t have applied to you because you only used it for data and not calls or txts, but it would for most people.

And then there is this:
“5GB data which is for use within Australia on internet browsing and downloading content. Data is charged in 1MB increments for uploads and downloads within Australia. Excludes mobile handset tethering and use of non mobile devices.”

Great if you want to use up heaps of data on your iphone but if you want to use that 5GB for anything but your smartphone (like your ipad, laptop etc) you are out of luck. (and it sounds like you were breaking the Ts and Cs of the contract by using portable hotspot as it might count as tethering - suspect if you did it for much longer they would have caught on and cut you off)

And that data is charged in 1MB increments means if your phone is constantly checking for email, using a few Kbs of actual data at a time, then each one of those will use up a MB. My NZ phone might check email 100 times per day and use maybe only 100KBs of my plan to do so. A woolworth’s mobile doing the same will use up 100MB. so, depending on your usage habits, your 5GB plan might mean you actually only get to use maybe 500MB

Ozzie telcos are extremely good at making deals sound awesome, but putting hidden Ts and Cs under the bonnet that would probably be illegal here in NZ because they are so misleading.

dolsen

1476 posts

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Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#668423 6-Aug-2012 16:22

NonprayingMantis:
dolsen:
NonprayingMantis:
ajobbins: I cringe every time I look at the prices for mobile usage in NZ. I've gotten very used to my Australian plan.

.

You know what I cringe at? How people constantly think they are being ripped off in NZ even if they aren’t.

We were over in Australia and wanted some data for our navigation etc. We had a look around and chose the Woolworths prepaid plan and it worked out really well.
My wife and I both have android smartphones and wanted to be able to keep using them. We also have an old ideos as well that we put the sim into and enabled the portable hotspot on that device and turned off cellular data on our main phones.
With this setup, we could both continue to use data on our main phones (via wifi) whilst having our normal numbers for incoming calls.

The Sim cost $2, and, we paid for a $29(AUD) topup. With the $29 topup - that is valid for 45 days, we get
$250 for any network calls,
$250 for any optus / woolworths calls.
and, most importantly
5GB of data!

I'm a happy user of 2 degrees, but, I'm sorry, none of their plans are near that.

http://www.woolworthsmobile.com.au/woolworths-prepaid-cap

Apart from the issues with the confusion around including all this so-called ‘value' the really sneaky thing with that is hidden in the Ts and Cs:

“Credit expires on recharge or after 45 days, whichever is the earlier.”

Hmm, sneaky.
I didn't see that - although, I knew it was a 10 day use so the expiry would not apply to me. That does put a negative spin on it though.

NonprayingMantis:

And then there is this:
“5GB data which is for use within Australia on internet browsing and downloading content. Data is charged in 1MB increments for uploads and downloads within Australia. Excludes mobile handset tethering and use of non mobile devices.”

Great if you want to use up heaps of data on your iphone but if you want to use that 5GB for anything but your smartphone (like your ipad, laptop etc) you are out of luck. (and it sounds like you were breaking the Ts and Cs of the contract by using portable hotspot as it might count as tethering - suspect if you did it for much longer they would have caught on and cut you off)

Yes I noticed that the terms on the brochure and the conditions on the website were subtlety different. On the printed out brochure (that I don't have in front of me at the moment, but I did read before purchasing it) the condition was that you could not teather to a computer, and, that you could not use non mobile devices. As I was not teathering "to a computer" (unless you use a more broad definition of a computer than a lot of people do), and, I knew that the user agent that our mobiles were using would be classified as mobile devices, I figured that we would be safe. We did comply with the terms and conditions as they were presented to us.

I also saw the high 1MB increments, but figured, 5GB - 10 days = no worries.

ajw

1932 posts

Uber Geek

#668533 6-Aug-2012 19:19

plambrechtsen:
ferg_nz:
plambrechtsen:
Edit: And if you're a Blackberry user I am pretty sure you can go for an "On the bill" or "Total Home Mobile" and get the Blackberry Data boost plus Text Boost if that works for you. Those plans however don't include any voice mins but may work for people who are heavy data/sms but never use the phone for voice calls.

Worth ringing up the *123 / 0800 800 163 / Online Chat Mobile Helpdesk and seeing what they can do.

We are using on the one bill for her bill but to get blackberry data you have to go on a pay monthly (still charged to home line) starting at $50 a month. than add the boost for texts

I just think and agree with the OP that they need to look at their plans and make them a bit more competitive

Try ringing up the mobile helpdesk and I think you can get moved onto the "Smart OneBill" or "Total Home Mobile" depending on what homeline plan you're on (and for Total Home Mobile if you're happy to only have 40GB data for your home BB) where effectively you have a prepaid mobile that you pay on your bill as you use it. Then you can add-on the Blackberry boosts for just the data or text you use.

I don't specifically work in retail mobile but I have known of other Geekzoners who have done this with success so YMMV.

And onto the argument of competitive XT is the only fully 3G nationwide network and now that CDMA is shutdown just wait for things to happen. So IMHO (I'm of course biased) you get great value from Telecom :)

According to this article Telecom is rapidly losing market share.
"However, XT, which also falls under Telecom Retail, has performed under analysts' expectations in terms of market share as Vodafone has slipped only, and 2degreees surged to 950,000 customers, including 100,000 on contract.

XT's technical failures soon after launch were pinned on those involved on the infrastructure and planning side of the roll-out but did make life a lot more difficult for Mr Gourdie's retail division, which struggled to regain the initative".

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/telecom-retail-boss-alan-gourdie-unsuccessful-ceo-candidate-leaves-company-ck-125049

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code15

198 posts

Master Geek

#668537 6-Aug-2012 19:34

So I've just had a chat to someone from telecoms customer retention team and I'm happy to say I now have:

- 100 mins calling
- 1gb data
- 2500 txt

For $53.33 a month

Effectively my data and minutes were doubled, and my txts multiplied by 6 for an extra $13.33.

He upped my plan to the smartphone $60, added the $10 txt addon, and gave me a recurring credit of 16.67 each month.

He also played the 'our network is superior card' and I have to say I agree with him, but I'm not sure how much longer telecom can stay competitive if they don't change their plans soon.

But anyway, thanks telecom! Very satisfied with your retention teams efforts. Bring on new plans!

Buttonmash

361 posts

Ultimate Geek

#668555 6-Aug-2012 20:21

Still paying $60 for that plan myself with only 300 texts. So here's hoping for an upgrade soon!

I'm very close to just switching to 2Degrees $39 plan, the only thing that's kept me so far is worry about their network coverage.

1eStar

1604 posts

Uber Geek

#668652 6-Aug-2012 23:56

If you want to stay on the XT 'superior' network, you could always go to 'skinny', their associated MVNO

On Skinny you can get for $51.60 per month:

43 mins
3225 texts
2623MB
(busy fingers + data600) $12p/w

Or:

172mins
430texts
2623MB
(loose lips + data600) $12p/w

All calcs done assuming there's 4.3 weeks in a month.

Another sly advantage of being with Skinny is you can buy multiple packs that can overlap if needs fluctuate.

stevenz

2802 posts

Uber Geek

#669726 8-Aug-2012 16:58

joff_nz: Are you able to use a service like whatsapp / gtalk etc instead of regular texting to keep under the 300?

Of course, as long as you're willing to deal with the added battery drain and everyone you want to talk to has the same service running on their phone.

@KnightNZ

joff_nz

446 posts

Ultimate Geek

#669736 8-Aug-2012 17:09

I meant for the OP in particular, if you have an allowance of 300 texts, are sending 50 to your mum and 100 to the Mrs, then you only need mum and the Mrs on a data based service.

Mungous

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#670537 10-Aug-2012 12:29

Dragging this back onto XT Smartphone plans, I completely agree with the thread author. Sure the coverage and speed is usually (but not always) superior to my mates on Vodafone NZ, but is the extra $30 per month for the same deal really worth it?

Edit: to clarify, I'm on the $60 Smartphone plan, but I use 400-500 texts per month so have to get the $10 text addon or pay a seemingly antiquated $0.20 per SMS once I go over 300

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