MikeHales: Certainly not deliberately unclear but interested in your feedback about being a mess as we're keen to improve so let me know how. You can also add to the thread on the Vodafone Community if you would like.

NikT:

eXDee: Comparing to other networks:

1gb for $30/month:
-$10 more than 2degrees
-$1 more and 500mb less data than Telecom

3gb for $50/3months (equiv to 1gb for $16.66 per month)
-Same price as 2degrees 3gb zone pack, however can be used anywhere, and lasts a month longer
-$1 more than telecom's 3gb/month plan but lasts triple the amount of time

5gb for $80/6months (equiv to 833mb for $13.33 per month)
-Telecom has no direct equiv quantity, however if you stacked multiple data packs it would come out to far more expensive and still not last as long
-Similar to 2degrees 6 month $99/12gb zone pack, except with less than half the data for $20 cheaper but can be used anywhere.

1gb one is poor value, 3gb and 5gb ones however are quite good. Nice improvements and i think we'll see a response from the other telcos in due course.

EDIT: $30/1GB on prepay, $20/1GB on-account.

Worth noting the recent additions to the on-account add-on roster:

 - 500MB for $10.00
 - 1GB for $20.00
 - 1.25GB for $25.00
 - 2GB for $30.00

All last 30 days. Details.

markl:

NikT:

eXDee: Comparing to other networks:

1gb for $30/month:
-$10 more than 2degrees
-$1 more and 500mb less data than Telecom

3gb for $50/3months (equiv to 1gb for $16.66 per month)
-Same price as 2degrees 3gb zone pack, however can be used anywhere, and lasts a month longer
-$1 more than telecom's 3gb/month plan but lasts triple the amount of time

5gb for $80/6months (equiv to 833mb for $13.33 per month)
-Telecom has no direct equiv quantity, however if you stacked multiple data packs it would come out to far more expensive and still not last as long
-Similar to 2degrees 6 month $99/12gb zone pack, except with less than half the data for $20 cheaper but can be used anywhere.

1gb one is poor value, 3gb and 5gb ones however are quite good. Nice improvements and i think we'll see a response from the other telcos in due course.

EDIT: $30/1GB on prepay, $20/1GB on-account.

Worth noting the recent additions to the on-account add-on roster:

 - 500MB for $10.00
 - 1GB for $20.00
 - 1.25GB for $25.00
 - 2GB for $30.00

All last 30 days. Details.

And just by way of cost comparison, I just returned from the US, where I purchased a T-Mobile prepay sim card which gave me unlimited text (any network), 100 minutes talk time (10c per minute std rate after that) and unlimited data (throttled to slow speed after first 5GB). The cost? $30 per month. First month plus SIM card cost $30 plus tax. This also included 4G connection where available.

Competition rules!

networkn: 

Haha, it's not competition that does that, it's SCALE
Per head of capita we have plenty of competition here.

Having said that, I use T-Mobile when I am in the USA, they are the cheapest of the decent providers, though coverage for decent speed mobile data can be fairly average, and because they lock phones in the US, if you don't have a T-Mobile branded device, you can't get FULL speed.

markl:

networkn: 

Haha, it's not competition that does that, it's SCALE
Per head of capita we have plenty of competition here.

Having said that, I use T-Mobile when I am in the USA, they are the cheapest of the decent providers, though coverage for decent speed mobile data can be fairly average, and because they lock phones in the US, if you don't have a T-Mobile branded device, you can't get FULL speed.

Yeah, you know what I mean 

Not sure about the "full speed" restriction - I certainly got some good speeds at times, though to be fair it was rubbish at other times also - if you ever drive the Big Sur, and want mobile coverage, go with AT&T, they're the only ones that cover the whole trip. 

One thing to note though is that they block wifi tethering, which surprised me a little. Apparently its easy to get around though...

1eStar: I don't think scale has too much to do with data pricing. If you compare a neighbouring Island Pacific nation (with a quarter of our population), which has prepaid mobile data (HSPA) regularly priced at less than 1c per MB. And regular weekly specials with double your data. It becomes clear that mobile data is the cash cow in NZ currently.

networkn:

1eStar: I don't think scale has too much to do with data pricing. If you compare a neighbouring Island Pacific nation (with a quarter of our population), which has prepaid mobile data (HSPA) regularly priced at less than 1c per MB. And regular weekly specials with double your data. It becomes clear that mobile data is the cash cow in NZ currently.

Can you provide some evidence around this stuff? I would be surprised if the Govt isn't subsidising those prices.

networkn:

markl:

One thing to note though is that they block wifi tethering, which surprised me a little. Apparently its easy to get around though...

Not sure what you mean, I use Wifi Tethering everytime I am in the USA at least the last 5 times at least.