XT Network handsets and plans

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › XT Network handsets and plans

1 | ... | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#218902 28-May-2009 18:45

Jughead: per second billing after the first minute also apply to included minutes which means you get alot more use out of your minutes.

Where did you see this mentioned?

Overclocker01

176 posts

Master Geek

#218903 28-May-2009 18:45

NickiB:
Overclocker01: The only benefit i really see for my situation is that Telecom favourites offers 3 numbers in comparison to Vodafone (not that useful when all your mates are on Vodafone) which only offers 1

My understanding is that it's $6 PER favourite, but you can have up to 3 favourites (ie for $18/mth). I'm happy to stand corrected, but having just read the fine print on this one for myself, this is my understanding.

I mean what percentage of NZ actually use broadband on their mobile?

Hitting the target, missing the point: The percentage of NZ using broadband on their mobile will increase, which is further enabled by the release of this network. It's the way of the future! ;-)

Thats all well and good but IMO a smarter marketing strategy would have been to get people to sign up on price points and then introduce the "3g" services that XT brings to the table.

Jughead

141 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#218905 28-May-2009 18:47

@sbiddle

per second billing does apply to included minutes on XT. This is new.

Any views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer Telecom NZ

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#218907 28-May-2009 18:50

Behodar: Prepaid calls going from 49 to 89c/min? Yuck.

Edit: Actually, it looks like if I top up $60 at a time then I get 33% free credit, which really makes the calls 59c/min. Since that's to any network, it's not so bad.

Unfortunately, it's not quite that good:

- You have to divide 89c by 1.3333 which gives 66.75c per minute.

Small Ups to Telecom for at least offering some improvement for Prepay customers. When Vodafone had similar limited-time offers in the past with a 20% or even 50% bonus for topping up your prepay mobile, I would throw $100 onto every mobile in the family. With Hotlink, it's very quick and easy to do this.

Thinking back, it's been a very long time since Vodafone made any of those offers. IIRC, the last one was on 29 May 2008 i.e. a year ago tomorrow. I wonder if they have any nice surprises in store for tomorrow?

It is interesting that both networks have now completely discontinued 49c per minute plans for new prepay customers. In fact, it could be argued, that both networks have used recent plan changes (Supa Prepay in Voda's case, and XT Mobile in TNZ's case) to introduce higher per minute charges, rather than the reverse, as would be expected. If that doesn't point to a cosy duopoly, I don't know what does.

For families like ours, with all members on Prepay Motormouth @ 49c per minute to on-net mobiles and landlines, this is a major disincentive to move away from our existing plans.

Roll on 2degrees!

NickiB

147 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#218908 28-May-2009 18:52

bonkiebonks: Anyone know if the data plans come with "insurance" like Vodafone's, where you pay $10 to double up the cap?

I know I've posted this question already, but it seems to have got lost in all this excitement/discussions.

Cheers.

http://twitter.com/TelecomNZ/status/1944049385

I think this answers it.

nOOb alert

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#218911 28-May-2009 19:00

Jughead: @sbiddle

per second billing does apply to included minutes on XT. This is new.

Where is this mentioned though? I had heard last week when I heard a little about the plans that it would also apply to included minutes but have spoken to a couple of people today who are in the know have assured me it only applies to prepaid and not on account.

Telecom's media releases make no mention of it applying to on account, just prepaid.

Jughead

141 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#218915 28-May-2009 19:05

It's in a FAQ sent to all retail staff. It's on their "HUB"

Any views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer Telecom NZ

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#218921 28-May-2009 19:19

Jughead: It's in a FAQ sent to all retail staff. It's on their "HUB"

Cool.. This was one of the things that was going to introduce significant savings.

simon14

1889 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#218925 28-May-2009 19:26

Well you can't exactly compare apples with apples then can you?

I guess XT's $30 for 50 minutes is about the same as Vodafones Choose 60 for $40 if you take into account the rounding of minutes on XT. Saving you $10 a month (unless your on a talker and texter plan)

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#218935 28-May-2009 19:59

I have just written a blog post on the per second rounding issue

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/sbiddle/6532

Can be some quite significant differences between both VF and when you factor this in.

Greekiwi

55 posts

Master Geek

#218939 28-May-2009 20:06

Excuse my ignorance, but I can't find this anywhere. Apart from the one phone mentioned in the news release, will any other phones be subsidised?

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#218946 28-May-2009 20:20

sbiddle: I have just written a blog post on the per second rounding issue

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/sbiddle/6532

Can be some quite significant differences between both VF and when you factor this in.

Thanks for doing the analysis Steve. It's impossible for me to do because all our phones are prepaid, but we do mostly make short calls (due to the cost) so, your estimate of a 25% cost saving is probably not too far out.

sbiddle: Looking at my last Vodafone bill I estimate however that I would have received approximately 25% more minutes with per second rounding after the 1st minute vs rounded calls with my included minutes on my Vodafone plan.

The savings will vary significantly depending on the length of your calls. If you're somebody who makes lots of short calls then the savings will be very significant. Long calls and they won't be quite so significant. It is certainly something that does need factored in when you're considering plans - despite what may appear to be similair airtime allowances between both Vodafone and Telecom plans for similair pricepoints you could infact be receiving significant extra value on an XT plan.

Using your estimate of a 25% cost saving, it drops the effective per minute prepay rate with $60 topups from 66.75c as I calculated above, to 50c per minute exactly. Which is near as damnit to the 49c I'm paying at present, and no more on-net / off-net silliness.

Definitely something to think further about, while waiting to see what 2degrees' offering will be.

sbiddle: So the big question - how long till Vodafone follows?

Exactly! I think it's fair to say that Telecom have stolen a bit of a march on Voda in this area, and it wouldn't be too surprising to see them follow fairly quickly. No doubt there will be some sort of fishhook in it though; such as "only applies to current plans" like Supa Prepay, and not to grandfathered plans like Prepay Motormouth

vel

23 posts

Geek

#218953 28-May-2009 20:33

Wow... that's crap lol My Iphone 120 plan is $80 for 120 min, 250mb and 600 text. For $80 on XT I would get 20 minutes less and 10 mb less...

NickiB

147 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#218956 28-May-2009 20:51

Greekiwi: Excuse my ignorance, but I can't find this anywhere. Apart from the one phone mentioned in the news release, will any other phones be subsidised?

Most likely, I think/hope they just gave them as examples (there were two FYI, Samsung touch F480 and R6). Looks like a $150 subsidy for a 24mth plan. Not really that helpful, the phone I end up getting is still likely to cost around $1k, $150 doesn't make jack difference.

nOOb alert

simon14

1889 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#218963 28-May-2009 20:59

vel: Wow... that's crap lol My Iphone 120 plan is $80 for 120 min, 250mb and 600 text. For $80 on XT I would get 20 minutes less and 10 mb less...

Have you read any of this topic?

With XT taking away the rounding of minutes, you will effectively have more air time than the same Vodafone plan, not less.

1 | ... | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24