smart phones on vodafone, have to be a millionaire?

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Kilack

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Topic # 57857 26-Feb-2010 21:14

Hi,

Recently I bought two smart phones. An iphone 3gs for my wife on a iphone40 plan and a nexus one for myself.

The iphone came with 250 megs of data per month but as part of a promotion got 3 gigs per month I think.

The nexus came with nothing obviously as had to import it from the states. It is then that I realised just how shocking the plans are in NZ and there was little to choose from. I came to this forum and see a big article about how lucky we are blah blah.. but are we really?
Let us look at the price for data.. 100 megs what they call broadband light.. for 10 dollars..

that is 100 megs a month.. not per day... :) yes a whole month..
Now the nexus one which runs android which is written by google has the idea that everything should be stored on the net... so it loves to chew through data.. it syncs with picasa web albums grabs stuff for its map apps, navigation etc etc, everything is streamed.. in about 20 minutes of turning the phone when i first got it, it had chewed through about 20 megs of data.. 1/5th of my monthly allowance..

These phones are only going to get more and more popular, android has doubled its market share in the last 3 months and is expected to rise rapidly with verizon & motorolla about to start pumping out android sets. Most big carriers overseas have massive data plans or unlimited data plans which cost only about 30-35 usd from the people i have talked to.

At the moment Im scared to take my phone out of wifi range, I dont care paying for data but the prices seem extreme compared to overseas and vodafone nz seem really behind in international pricing and also the way the world is going (cloud). More and more apps are being written to store data not on the phone but on the net and 100 megs can be gone in a matter of minutes but yet vodafone nz would have us thinking 100 megs for a month is some sort of plan... (come on.. wake up, smell the cloud)

So... anyone have any inside information, are things going to change here? are plans going to become a little more realistic? or are we stuck with this cause of our population and only 2 real carriers?

place your bets.. and comments..

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Master Geek

Reply # 302601 26-Feb-2010 22:14

So get a bigger plan. You should be able to go onto one of the iphone plans?

Also make sure any sync happens when you are on wifi. Any data while your on network should only be emails, and whatever surfing you do. 250mb should be enough for that.

Once we get streamed music in NZ, data will become more of a problem, or if you want to watch videos.

I have used about 1 gig in the 6 months I have had my phone. A big more when tethered but I knew I was on the 3gig deal at the time so didn't care.

MikeyPI

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Reply # 302602 26-Feb-2010 22:15

If you cant afford it dont use it. Its not oxygen...

freitasm

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Reply # 302604 26-Feb-2010 22:18

I agree mobile data is expensive in New Zealand. However I'd expect most smartphone users to do the smart thing and use other means to connect to the Internet whenever it's possible. Not only for the cost but because your WiFi at home or office is probably a lot faster than anything you can get from Vodafone or Telecom. And cheaper.

I have been using smartphones for years - my first Symbian device was back in 2003 and my first Windows Mobile device soon after. I have been synchronising my information - email, contacts, tasks, calendar - with Exchange over the air since then. I have some backup over the air, use Twitter, Google Maps and my usage is about 300MB/month (I am on a Telecom XT 500MB plan on my smartphone and I have a 1GB plan on a USB modem).

Whenever I am at home I have WiFi connection. Simple, automatic, transparent.

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Kilack

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Reply # 302605 26-Feb-2010 22:20

MikeyPI: If you cant afford it dont use it. Its not oxygen...

Yeah, clap clap.

Kilack

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Reply # 302609 26-Feb-2010 22:30

freitasm: I agree mobile data is expensive in New Zealand. However I'd expect most smartphone users to do the smart thing and use other means to connect to the Internet whenever it's possible. Not only for the cost but because your WiFi at home or office is probalby a lot faster than anything you can get from Vodafone or Telecom. And cheaper.

I have been using smartphones for years - my first Symbian device was back in 2003 and my first Windows Mobile device soon after. I have been synchronising my information - email, contacts, tasks, calendar - with Exchange over the air since then. I have some backup over the air, use Twitter, Google Maps and my usage is about 300MB/month (I am on a Telecom XT 500MB plan on my smartphone and I have a 1GB plan on a USB modem).

Whenever I am at home I have WiFi connection. Simple, automatic, transparent.

Yes, I am definitely using wifi when I can. It is just a shame with such great apps on the phone like the gallery that shows brilliant photos straight from picasa albums that when you visit a friend etc you cant show them the photos because you know its going to chew through a few hundred megs and cost you 30 bucks to show a friend some photos. As most app developers and certainly google don't write their apps with the idea that people will be charged 10 dollars per 100 megs so aren't too conservative with their data useage :).

Anyway guess I just wanted to see if other people were finding it hard with the data here, I am sure it will only get worse as more data hungry phones trickle in.. the carriers will surely have to look at their prices eventually.. smartphones aren't just for users on business accounts these days that is for sure.

thanks for your input.

jerryvarghese

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Reply # 302614 26-Feb-2010 22:41

the question being asked is genuine. we are paying through our nose for the data plans. the tendency of 'insiders' from telecom and Vodafone shouting down concerns is starting to take away the neutrality of this forum. Why bother if that is the approach. at the very least have a disclosure statement in your profile.

freitasm

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Reply # 302615 26-Feb-2010 22:47

jerryvarghese: the question being asked is genuine. we are paying through our nose for the data plans. the tendency of 'insiders' from telecom and Vodafone shouting down concerns is starting to take away the neutrality of this forum. Why bother if that is the approach. at the very least have a disclosure statement in your profile.

Once again someone who disagrees with other people's point of view come around accusing without any knowledge.

As far as I know no one who replied here work for Telecom or Vodafone. Also, those are welcome, because otherwise we would have a place where a lot of people would complain but nothing would be solved.

If you want to know my "disclosure", follow the link. I work for myself, and Geekzone is my full time job.

This kind of accusation is reason for ban here. Please read the private message I sent you.

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johnr

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Reply # 302621 26-Feb-2010 23:11

NZ has more than 2 carriers

John

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Reply # 302627 26-Feb-2010 23:56

johnr: NZ has more than 2 carriers

LOL. Yep, 3 is 'more than 2', but 'more than 2' sounds better somehow.

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richms

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Reply # 302635 27-Feb-2010 01:20

No, there are 6 - dont forget that TC and slingshot are all too happy to sell you a plan, and I seem to recall some black and white company from a while ago.. they still going???

Richard rich.ms

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Reply # 302641 27-Feb-2010 07:56

They are indeed (www.bw.co.nz). 1GB of data with them costs $60.

VFNZPaulBrislen

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Reply # 302648 27-Feb-2010 08:49

Couple of points here:

1: It's not 100MB a month, it's 100MB for $10. Sure you have to use it within a month but somehow I think that won't be a problem. If it's gone, buy another pack, or move up to the 512MB for $30. Or go on account and get up to 6GB for $90. There are plenty of options.

2: Most iPhone users don't use more than around 200-300MB/Month (without tethering). Wifi use kicks in for the heavier use and that's a great combination. I'm a heavy user, have no access to wifi at work for my iPhone and use about 300MB a month.

3: There are three networks but the MVNOs are aggressively moving into this area. Did anyone see the new front page on Slingshot's site today? Nobody's pussy-footing around pricing.

Paul

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alasta

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Reply # 302658 27-Feb-2010 09:39

PaulBrislen: 2: Most iPhone users don't use more than around 200-300MB/Month (without tethering). Wifi use kicks in for the heavier use and that's a great combination. I'm a heavy user, have no access to wifi at work for my iPhone and use about 300MB a month.

I agree with Paul on this point. Admittedly I wouldn't consider myself a heavy user, but I spend a few minutes every day browsing Facebook and 3news mobile sites as well as constantly syncing to my workplace Exchange server and occasional use of maps, weather, stocks, etc. and my total traffic for last month was only 56Mb. Yes, I connect to Wifi when I'm at home but I spend most of my time out and about so I would be using 3G much more than Wifi.

I'm not familiar with Android but the idea of centralised storage sounds inefficient to me. Flash memory is very cheap and USB is very fast, so old fashioned USB syncing still makes a lot of sense to me.

Kilack

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Reply # 302664 27-Feb-2010 10:31

alasta:
PaulBrislen: 2: Most iPhone users don't use more than around 200-300MB/Month (without tethering). Wifi use kicks in for the heavier use and that's a great combination. I'm a heavy user, have no access to wifi at work for my iPhone and use about 300MB a month.

I agree with Paul on this point. Admittedly I wouldn't consider myself a heavy user, but I spend a few minutes every day browsing Facebook and 3news mobile sites as well as constantly syncing to my workplace Exchange server and occasional use of maps, weather, stocks, etc. and my total traffic for last month was only 56Mb. Yes, I connect to Wifi when I'm at home but I spend most of my time out and about so I would be using 3G much more than Wifi.

I'm not familiar with Android but the idea of centralised storage sounds inefficient to me. Flash memory is very cheap and USB is very fast, so old fashioned USB syncing still makes a lot of sense to me.

I don't consider myself a heavy user either, I was mentioning I only used the phone for a few minutes and raced through the data, the phone downloaded an update as soon as i turned it on which didn't help, before i could setup wifi. The way apps are going they are going to use more and more data.

As for your comments on storage on the net being a bad idea, well I agree and disagree.
For some things like music, games etc storage on flash memory is perfect, you need it fast etc.

For other things storage on the net is far better.
eg maps (because they are always up to date), gps systems with live traffic etc, photos (you cant beat the size of the net for storage) plus you can view other peoples albums etc, heck even music is great off the net with apps like pandora.
Also a lot of apps out there now that sync everything on your phone to the net, great for backups etc. That means you don't have to haul around your pc with you for a backup.
It is just a matter of time before people start using these types of features more, probably cost of data is one of the reasons people aren't here already.

Kilack

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Reply # 302665 27-Feb-2010 10:40

PaulBrislen: Couple of points here:

1: It's not 100MB a month, it's 100MB for $10. Sure you have to use it within a month but somehow I think that won't be a problem. If it's gone, buy another pack, or move up to the 512MB for $30. Or go on account and get up to 6GB for $90. There are plenty of options.

Yes quite correct, I bought a starter 60 plan which comes with a bonus of 100 megs per month so was talking about that inclusion. I didn't actually see the smart phone plans which give 250 megs. I wish I had got one of them instead.. Vodafone will charge me to change plans though right? even if I'm upgrading? Gutted to have missed out on the 3gig promotion.. any chance you are bringing that back? :)

2: Most iPhone users don't use more than around 200-300MB/Month (without tethering). Wifi use kicks in for the heavier use and that's a great combination. I'm a heavy user, have no access to wifi at work for my iPhone and use about 300MB a month.

Indeed, from what I have read average use around the world is 276 megs per month for iphone users though this is expected to rise rapidly each year with projections of average use hitting 7 gigs per month by 2016. I have no idea about average use for android users but I expect it is probably higher given the philosophy of google and android.

3: There are three networks but the MVNOs are aggressively moving into this area. Did anyone see the new front page on Slingshot's site today? Nobody's pussy-footing around pricing.

Paul

Yeah their data prices are still pretty much the same though, probably not too much room for movement I am sure.
Anyway great to see a reply from someone at vodafone, im sure prices will come down eventually as they usually do with more demand etc for now I'll just be more careful when im not in wifi range. I have installed an app that at least warns me when im getting close to my quota :)

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