Cook Island call roaming on Telecom

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Cook Island call roaming on Telecom

old3eyes

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#87695 4-Aug-2011 13:01

Anyone in Telecom explain why it costs $5/min to call back to NZ from the Cooks and only $4/minute to call Australia and most of the rest of the world??

I'm going over there to work next week and I have a Vodafone work fone and they charge under $4/ min to call back to NZ as do 2D but my wife has a XT mobile so she won't be calling home at those prices..

Considering Telecom NZ has some economic relationship to Telecom Cook Island it seems another rip off again..

Regards,

Old3eyes

hairy1

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#501889 4-Aug-2011 13:13

When I lived there Telecom Cook Islands was 50% (around that figure) owned by Telecom New Zealand. I am not sure if it still is. The high price of all telecommunications is due to the whole service going via satellite. When I was there dial up was 15c per minute. They have done a good job in the last few years of bringing the price of comms down. Buy a kokanet wifi card and call via skype!

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joff_nz

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#501897 4-Aug-2011 13:22

Or pick up a local sim.

If you look at Telecoms roaming pricing you will see the $4 international rate, the $80c/text rate, and the $1 incoming rate are the same throughout the whole world.

It would appear that Telecom have favoured simplicity rather than strictly best value.

If I were roaming to anywhere other than aus,us,uk, I'd certainly be picking up a local sim.

johnr

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#501913 4-Aug-2011 13:59

If the price was the same you would call it price fixing

old3eyes

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#501985 4-Aug-2011 16:20

johnr: If the price was the same you would call it price fixing

Maybe.. :-) but with Voda @ $3/ min I'm glad that my work fone is on Vodafone..

Regards,

Old3eyes

old3eyes

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#501988 4-Aug-2011 16:21

joff_nz: Or pick up a local sim.

If you look at Telecoms roaming pricing you will see the $4 international rate, the $80c/text rate, and the $1 incoming rate are the same throughout the whole world.

It would appear that Telecom have favoured simplicity rather than strictly best value.

If I were roaming to anywhere other than aus,us,uk, I'd certainly be picking up a local sim.

Telecom is $5/ min back to NZ..

Regards,

Old3eyes

johnr

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#501995 4-Aug-2011 16:24

old3eyes:
johnr: If the price was the same you would call it price fixing

Maybe.. :-) but with Voda @ $3/ min I'm glad that my work fone is on Vodafone..

If it is your work phone why does the price matter?

NonprayingMantis

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#502514 5-Aug-2011 18:40

the cook islands is a tiny little place with a very small resident populaton who have virtually no money (i.e. excluding tourists). I imagine the only way that cook islands telecom makes *any* money is by charging it's roaming partners a huge amount per minute/sms/MB.... and that would include Telecom.

The fact that Telecom owns some of them (50%?) is irrelevant, and in fact if they did take advantage of it they would be accused of anti competitive behavior by pricing at a level that nobody else could do.

old3eyes

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#502522 5-Aug-2011 18:56

johnr:
old3eyes:
johnr: If the price was the same you would call it price fixing

Maybe.. :-) but with Voda @ $3/ min I'm glad that my work fone is on Vodafone..

If it is your work phone why does the price matter?

My work fone doesn't matter . It's my wifes fone..

Regards,

Old3eyes

onXgosub500

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#507257 16-Aug-2011 12:24

One thing we found out when we returned from Aitutaki is that we were charged 80c for each text message received as well as being charged for sending. With my wife getting a text whenever a message was added to her Facebook, and having her birthday over there, the bill was horrendous!

johnr

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#507271 16-Aug-2011 12:45

onXgosub500: One thing we found out when we returned from Aitutaki is that we were charged 80c for each text message received as well as being charged for sending. With my wife getting a text whenever a message was added to her Facebook, and having her birthday over there, the bill was horrendous!

Are you sure?

akia

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#507394 16-Aug-2011 15:45

onXgosub500: One thing we found out when we returned from Aitutaki is that we were charged 80c for each text message received as well as being charged for sending. With my wife getting a text whenever a message was added to her Facebook, and having her birthday over there, the bill was horrendous!

That doesn't seem right. As a Telecom customer if you believe that you were charged to receive texts while overseas it's best to contact the Roaming helpdesk on 0800 466 3246.

Any problems let me know.