Pricing for Mobile Broadband

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networkn

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#87987 12-Aug-2011 11:48

Hi There!

I know we are a fair amount smaller than Australia, but I can't really understand how in Aussie I can purchase a $2 simcard from a provider there, stick it in my phone, and get data for 2c a MB where in NZ that isn't just miles from the rates we pay. Scales of economy can't be the only reason here surely?

It was so cheap I could have an IP based conversation on my phone to my wife's phone on our home wifi!

Plus, EVERYWHERE I went I could speedtest at at LEAST 4Mb/s and in most places I was getting 8+.

I really wish speeds were better with VF in the Auckland CBD, I am lucky if I can get more than a 1Mb connection.

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#505421 12-Aug-2011 11:55

I just did a speedtest this minute on my Galaxy S2 and got 4.2 DL and 2.3 UL

I am not in the office this week so working off a cell any Joe Bloggs can attach to in Auckland CBD

John

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#505424 12-Aug-2011 11:58

which ozzie carrier charges 2c/MB for casual data?

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#505425 12-Aug-2011 11:58

Hi There!

That's interesting. For the last month or so I have been taking speedtests from MY Galaxy S2, and been unable to get 2/1 but I got the almost identical speeds to you just this moment 4.2/2.1 which is the fastest I have ever seen. Did VF make changes recently (in the last 3 days).

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#505427 12-Aug-2011 12:01

http://www.amaysim.com.au/ (Shows as 5c but I paid 2c 3 weeks ago).

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#505429 12-Aug-2011 12:03

NonprayingMantis: which ozzie carrier charges 2c/MB for casual data?

Certainly not Next G which is the only network in Aussie that is any good.

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#505430 12-Aug-2011 12:04

networkn: http://www.amaysim.com.au/ (Shows as 5c but I paid 2c 3 weeks ago).

Mind providing some stats for your 8Mbps + speedtest claims? I don't want to knock you but I simply refuse to believe that most tests you did on Optus gave 8Mbps + speeds.

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#505431 12-Aug-2011 12:04

sbiddle: Amaysim was excellent, I couldn't fault a single thing, not sure exactly what your issue with them was.

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#505435 12-Aug-2011 12:10

networkn: http://www.amaysim.com.au/ (Shows as 5c but I paid 2c 3 weeks ago).

ah,ok. This is how:

https://amaysim-media.s3.amazonaws.com/legal/amaysim-Mobile-Service-Description.pdf

look at section 8.2.5

"Data will be charged in 1MB increments. This means that charges for a part of a MB will be rounded up to the nearest MB"

LOL

NZ carriers tend to charge between 5 and 20KB. in other words, if you check your email and recieve 5KB worth oif files, that just cost you 5c with amaysim. On Telecom, 2D or Voda if just used up a microcent worth of data.

so in reality you didn't pay 2c/MB. you paid 2c per session. unless you are watching youtube or downloading large files, most sessions on a smartphone would be in the order of a few KB.

amaysim count on you not reading their Ts and Cs and so you would be blissfully unaware of this charging mechanism that basically shafts you on a smartphone.

If you had a facebook ap or push email that checks for updates every 10 minutes, you could quite easily rack up hundreds of MB of 'usage' per day with amaysim, when identical usage on XT, Voda, Telecom, would only show as a few MBs.

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#505442 12-Aug-2011 12:20

Well this wouldn't be consistent with my usage/charges, I don't have them handy but I paid next to nothing for data. Even if it's doing what you say, at 2c a MB it's still less than what I would pay here.

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#505444 12-Aug-2011 12:21

networkn: sbiddle: Amaysim was excellent, I couldn't fault a single thing, not sure exactly what your issue with them was.

No problems, other than Optus network is only 7.2Mbps HSDPA except for a very limited number of test sites that went live in mid to late June that hav 14.4 enabled for testing. Their network is well known for congestion and slow speeds, check out all the huge threads on Whirlpool. Many of the complains make all 3 networks in NZ seem amazing in comparison.

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#505445 12-Aug-2011 12:21

sbiddle:
networkn: http://www.amaysim.com.au/ (Shows as 5c but I paid 2c 3 weeks ago).

Mind providing some stats for your 8Mbps + speedtest claims? I don't want to knock you but I simply refuse to believe that most tests you did on Optus gave 8Mbps + speeds.

Well I used speedtest android app, but that was weeks ago now, my history doesn't seem to have record, but I can assure you I doublechecked it as I was certainly surprised. I was in Melbourne.

I can't tell you how impressed I was with the speed of stuff I was doing on my phone when I was in Aussie. Was amazing.

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#505448 12-Aug-2011 12:23

sbiddle:
networkn: sbiddle: Amaysim was excellent, I couldn't fault a single thing, not sure exactly what your issue with them was.

No problems, other than Optus network is only 7.2Mbps HSDPA except for a very limited number of test sites that went live in mid to late June that hav 14.4 enabled for testing. Their network is well known for congestion and slow speeds, check out all the huge threads on Whirlpool. Many of the complains make all 3 networks in NZ seem amazing in comparison.

Well I am not sure what to tell you, I am going off what the speedtest app was telling me, and how amazingly snappy the whole thing felt. Maybe I was just incredibly lucky, but that wasn't my feeling over the 4 days I was there.

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#505452 12-Aug-2011 12:27

What handset?

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#505455 12-Aug-2011 12:30

Galaxy S2

NonprayingMantis

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#505456 12-Aug-2011 12:30

networkn: Well this wouldn't be consistent with my usage/charges, I don't have them handy but I paid next to nothing for data. Even if it's doing what you say, at 2c a MB it's still less than what I would pay here.

depends on how you used it. lots of youtube or large files then yes it would be cheaper, but lots of short sessions (as are very common with smartphones) then it probably wouldn''t have been cheaper. the genius of it is that even if you get rorted it still looks cheap to you because it would report your billed usage, not your actual usage. i.e. 3 sessions of 5KBs would show up on your meter as 3MB and 6c of charges.

Lets take a simple example of usage. Imagine your phone checks for email/facebook updates every 10 minutes and it uses 20KB each time, and that is the only data you use. That is 6 sessions an hour, or 144 sessions per day.

On amaysim that would show up as 144MB of data (since each session is rounded up to 1MB) and costs you ‘only’ 144 x 5c = ~$7.

The same usage in NZ actually wouldn't show as 7Mb though. It *actually* only use 144 x 20kb = ~2800kb, or ~2.6MB.
On XT or Voda casual data it would costs you $1 (since you pay $1 for up to 10MB).
On 2Degrees casual Rate (50c/MB) it would cost you around $1.44 (since there is a 1c minimum charge per session, 144 sessions = 144c).

Either way, that’s a lot less than the $7 you paid with Amaysim, but you don’t realise it because your usage meter tells you that you used 144MB when actually you used les than 3MB. Add in a sprinkling of longer sessions and the difference becomes smaller, but it’s still there.

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