AU/NZ 4G USB modem compatibility?

Forums › New Zealand Mobile and Wireless › AU/NZ 4G USB modem compatibility?

Tulipmania

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Wannabe Geek

#324765 22-May-2026 01:40

Hi guys, moving soon from OZ to NZ.

I am looking to replicate the same setup I have here in Australia (fibre as primary, 4G as backup) and so far I have noticed 4G USB modems/dongles are very expensive in NZ which I don't understand why.

Do you know if this usb modem will work there with one of your ISP?

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/telstra-prepaid-4gx-usb-modem-telmf833v

Thank you

Linux

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#3494619 22-May-2026 04:46

Why not go for 5G backup? I suspect it is cheaper as it is SIM locked

Tulipmania

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Wannabe Geek

#3494634 22-May-2026 07:34

Well I assume 4G is cheaper and 5G isn't available everywhere here, I have never used it because I live in a rural area.

Linux

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#3494636 22-May-2026 07:38

Many rural locations have 5G and 4G cheaper in what way?

r055b

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#3494652 22-May-2026 09:05

Agree, as @Linux said, it would be cheaper because it would be locked to the Telstra network.

I have one of these gathering dust that you can have. Get in touch when you arrive here. It works on One NZ

https://www.alcatelmobile.com/eu/product/mobile-broadband/mobile-wifi/linkzone-cat4-mobile-wi-fi/

Ruphus

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#3494714 22-May-2026 13:59

I have a Telstra 5G Hotspot and 5G Hotspot 2 which I picked up on a couple of trips to AU. Both of them work fine in NZ on local SIMs, but you'll need to manually add the APN details. Neither of them needed to be unlocked to use an NZ SIM.

freitasm

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#3494715 22-May-2026 14:18

This device is cheaper because it is locked to Telstra as per answers in the product page:

"This device is a locked modem, and allows you to purchase the Telstra data plan that meets your usage and needs."

"This data can only be used on the Telstra network."

"This is locked specifically to Telstra"

"This device is locked to the Telstra network. A fee applied to unlock the device to use another provider."

"Yes, this device takes a micro SIM for the Telstra Network."

"Yes, this is locked to the Telstra network."

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freitasm

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#3494716 22-May-2026 14:24

@Tulipmania check my D-Link Eagle listing - still not sold, asking $80, and it's a full router

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#3494722 22-May-2026 15:04

Another thing to consider is that fibre to the home is quite reliable, and outages are quite uncommon.

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Linux

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#3494827 22-May-2026 20:09

As above fibre is rock solid and if required tether your phone to your computer

nztim

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#3494847 23-May-2026 07:46

Linux:

As above fibre is rock solid and if required tether your phone to your computer

For the one time since 2019 I lost fibre for more than a day (when a digger decided to go through the feeder cable in our suburb) is it really worth paying circa $20 per month for 4G/5G backup? that's $1680 over 7 years

....oh and that 4G/5G backup wouldn't have helped me as the mobile service to the towers goes over that same feeder cable :)

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#3494851 23-May-2026 08:19

8 plus years on fibre I can only think of one outage same reason spade fade!

Work has backup starlink but that is a multi billion dollar business listed on the NZ share market

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tangerz

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#3494934 24-May-2026 13:20

nztim:

Linux:

As above fibre is rock solid and if required tether your phone to your computer

For the one time since 2019 I lost fibre for more than a day (when a digger decided to go through the feeder cable in our suburb) is it really worth paying circa $20 per month for 4G/5G backup? that's $1680 over 7 years

....oh and that 4G/5G backup wouldn't have helped me as the mobile service to the towers goes over that same feeder cable :)

Agreed! Unless you have something critical on your network that absolutely requires 100% uptime, the cost simply isn't worth it. I have a 4G router that is set up and ready to go as WAN2 on my network. On the couple of occasions of significant fibre outages, (in 10 years!), I can drop a travel SIM in the router and be back up and running in no time. My current choice would be the 2Degrees unlimited max speed data/hotspot/tethering 3-day SIM... for $24!

It also wouldn't be difficult to set up my phone in hotspot mode to be the WAN for the whole network. Paying for a backup to a network as reliable as fibre doesn't make much sense. 🤷‍♂️

LostBoyNZ

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#3494937 24-May-2026 13:35

I can also vouch for fibre being super reliable. Depending where you're moving to, a power cut is far more likely. Although UPS aren't cheap either. I have a Ecoflow River 3, becaused I wanted a lithium-ion battery UPS. They're about $410 - $460 and could power a modem and Wi-Fi router for several hours.

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#3494956 24-May-2026 16:15

Linux:

8 plus years on fibre I can only think of one outage same reason spade fade!

Work has backup starlink but that is a multi billion dollar business listed on the NZ share market

This.

If you actually, definitely need almost no outages then you probably shouldn't be self hosting, your server instances should be in a Tier 1 data centre or better still in two Tier 1 data centres in two geographically separated regions.

If you don't actually need this, then firstly your fibre should be on a business plan, not a residential plan - you get actual SLAs not just "best efforts" on restoration.
The next thing is to protect yourself from longer or wider outages that take out both fibre and cellular networks. In my experience fibre in NZ is amazingly reliable, but the outages (other than very short-term incidents) tend to either be natural event related (fire, flood, earthquake) or "man with digger" problems which are likely to take out the fibre feed to cell towers as well as homes & businesses.
The obvious way to mitigate this is having Starlink as a backup - they do reasonably attractively priced (from $55/month) plans. Amazon should also be in this market segment in a year or too.

freitasm

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#3494958 24-May-2026 16:35

This is all that say FTH is a lot more reliable and performs better than then usual FTN used in Australia. If you had experienced problems with FTN, it does not apply here.

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