Mobile Broadband offshore on CDMA after end of January

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Mobile Broadband offshore on CDMA after end of January

Thelonious

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#18239 3-Jan-2008 10:45

I am currently in Sydney and using mobile broadband with my Minimax card on the CDMA network - just brilliant. Absolutely plug and play and more seamless than the mobile phone challenges between the countries.

I understand that after January 28 Telecom NZ will no longer use a CDMA network in Aus - at least for voice. Anyone know what this will mean for mobile broadband users travelling to Aus with their laptops and CDMA mobile broadband cards.

sbiddle

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#102658 3-Jan-2008 10:54

Telstra are shutting down their CDMA network so the simple answer is that it won't work.

The only choice is to get a 3G/HSDPA card - if you're in Australia regularly I would suggest getting a plan on Telstra's NextG network as it's by far the best option in Australia for mobile data.

Thelonious

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Master Geek

#102665 3-Jan-2008 11:11

Ah... as I feared!! Thanks for that - good tight advice. I shall look into that.
Cheers
Brent

nzbnw

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#102668 3-Jan-2008 11:32

I beleive Telecom will be providing customers like yourself a data roaming solution in the very near future.

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Thelonious

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#102778 3-Jan-2008 20:25

Good to hear - given the cost of alternatives like hotel ethernet etc. Thanks for that
B

freitasm

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#102785 3-Jan-2008 20:53

Thelonious: Good to hear - given the cost of alternatives like hotel ethernet etc. Thanks for that
B

Most hotel Internet services are much cheaper than any cellular data roaming. Most hotels charge something around US$19.95/AU$29.95 more or less for a full day access - on mobile cellular roaming this wouldn't give you much data at all!

sbiddle

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#102786 3-Jan-2008 20:57

Thelonious: Good to hear - given the cost of alternatives like hotel ethernet etc. Thanks for that
B

IMHO it's pretty hard to go past WiFi if you want affordable mobile data in Australia. Hotspot prividers like Azure only charge A$6.60 per hour and have huge numbers of hotspots including a lot of hotels. Telstra also have extensive CBD WiFi coverage and are in (virtually) every McDonalds and Starbucks in Australia.

nzbnw

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#104069 10-Jan-2008 20:00

*BUMP* Telecom has released new zone pricing for mobile data roaming, increasing the Telecom Mobile Data Roaming footprint.

For pricing see: http://www.telecom.co.nz/dataroaming

One could safely assume this is use loan devices, and launches 28th of January 2008.

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nzbnw

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#104072 10-Jan-2008 20:06

For discussion on Telecom Data Zone pricing please reply to this thread: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=39&TopicId=18449

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