Buying a phone in Australia

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shortsophs

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Topic # 9445 17-Sep-2006 15:55

I believe that there was a similar thread before about this topic but yeah.

My family are going over to Aus for the holidays and my sister was thinking about getting a phone over there and I sorta am as well.

What are the advantages, disdvantages and possible problems?

freitasm

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Reply # 46291 17-Sep-2006 16:20

There are some in both ways... For example, make sure you don't buy a CDMA phone over there, because it can not be connected on Telecom New Zealand's network if you come back.

If you get a GSM phone there, it may be locked to a network (3 and Telstra do this!) which means it will not work back here if you insert a Vodafone SIM card. Even if you buy a Vodafone handset there, you are not 100% safe, because some of the 3G features are not handled by parallel imported phones (even if it's branded Vodafone!).

So, yes it's kind of interesting. The phones might work, but it may be cheaper to simply get a phone here on GSM (Vodafone), buy a prepaid SIM card while over there, and then you are sure the phone will work when you come back and insert a local SIM card.

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jesseycy

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Reply # 46296 17-Sep-2006 22:07

I have another take on it, since I frequently buy phones from overseas....

Here's what I do: Compile a list of phones I'm interested in, do up a list of prices in NZ after some research...

Then... Head overseas, and buy from reputable "big" stores. Make sure that it's not locked, if you're in Australia, this is easy, just swap in a Vodafone NZ sim card to see if it connects and try to make a call.... And then, buy it, often quite a bit cheaper too, (esp if in countries like Singapore or Hong Kong or Japan)...

But remember, I have 2 things I'm not particulrly fussed about.... :
#1: The ability to play around with Vodafone NZ "Live"... You will be lucky to get the experience with full pictures, more likely not..
#2: I don't care about downloading music tracks, videos, etc. This will most likely not be supported.

Other than those 2, Txt, Calls, Video calls, have been no problem with my phones from overseas. MMS (Pxt) might be abit hard to setup, but it generally works.

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freitasm

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Reply # 46406 18-Sep-2006 17:32

Have in mind that most resellers will not allow you to insert a SIM and try a phone call. As soon as the call timers change from 0 they can not sell the phone as brand new anymore.

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chiefie

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Reply # 46408 18-Sep-2006 17:45

a bit like the car odometer.

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jesseycy

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Reply # 46413 18-Sep-2006 20:49

freitasm: Have in mind that most resellers will not allow you to insert a SIM and try a phone call. As soon as the call timers change from 0 they can not sell the phone as brand new anymore.

Easy.... So, before you buy it, ask them ... "Hey, I'm going to use this overseas with another SIM card... U sure it is unlocked and accept sim cards from another mobile carrier"... And assuming they said 'Yeah mate" and you buy it, pop the card you brought along then and try it...

If anything goes wrong, you can point it out there and then to them... And I seriously doubt that a seller would blindly refuse refund right in your face that way.... (If you encounter someone as dodgy as that, there's as much chance you encounter such a dodgy seller in NZ)