They also bumped up their monthly plan data cap

16 dollar plan now has 2.25GB of data.

A bit disappointing. Reminds me of what Vodafone did a few years ago - "we have the cheapest prepay rates!" soon becomes "due to increasing costs we have had to make the tough decision to increase prices".

But yeah it's still good value and I'm happy.

zyo:

As long as they don't take away the bonus 1gb data.

Only till 9 August as mentioned in their terms.

 

38. The Promotion begins on 1 July 2019 and ends on 9 August 2019 for the bonus 1GB offer. (being the Promotion Period).

I guess this and the increase in causal rates are to promote people buying their combos

The new call rate of 8c per minute is still pretty good. 

The data rate is only going up from 6c to 8c which isn't a huge increase - I pay for a data pack anyway.

It is the pricing for the texts that I find the most disappointing.  From 2c to 8c is a rather large increase, to overnight quadruple the cost seems a bit rude.  But also there is the fact that a text costs the provider nothing.  On average a text must be around 0.1kb of data and since their data charge is 8c per Mb then charging the same for 1% of 1% of a Mb is just insane!

A text bundle will let you send unlimited texts for $4, if you send 2,000 texts then they have cost you 0.2c each (1/10th of current casual rate), clearly they want to get 40x that price rather than 10x.  Actually, I don't think they want the 8c at all - this seems like a change designed to encourage more of their customers to choose the bundle instead of the casual rate.  Now instead of being able to send up to 200 texts for less cost than buying a bundle, you will only be able to send up to 50 texts.  I send less than 50 per month, so it still isn't worth paying for a pack.

When you consider just how cheap texting is within a plan or pack, it is VERY clear that the cost to providers is next to nothing (or maybe literally nothing).  Skinny will let you send unlimited texts on their $9 plan, WM will sell you a text pack for $4, on Vodafone MyFlex you only pay $1 more for 500 texts than for 50 texts and another $1 again to make it unlimited, 2Degrees gives you unlimited texts on all plans including the $10 prepaid plan, Spark also offers unlimited texts although their plans are dearer than everyone else's.

So yeah, for me: 8c instead of 4c per minute - not that big a deal to me as I don't make many calls, 8c instead of 6c per MB - doesn't affect me as I pay for a data pack, 8c instead of 2c per text - really annoys me because a text is a tiny tiny piece of data that really should cost almost nothing.

BTW: I used to use Vodafone with 'pay as you go' paying 1c per text - I changed over to WM when Vodafone jumped up the price 10x to 10c per text.

MarkH67:

 

The new call rate of 8c per minute is still pretty good. 

 

The data rate is only going up from 6c to 8c which isn't a huge increase - I pay for a data pack anyway.

 

It is the pricing for the texts that I find the most disappointing.  From 2c to 8c is a rather large increase, to overnight quadruple the cost seems a bit rude.  But also there is the fact that a text costs the provider nothing.  On average a text must be around 0.1kb of data and since their data charge is 8c per Mb then charging the same for 1% of 1% of a Mb is just insane!

 

A text bundle will let you send unlimited texts for $4, if you send 2,000 texts then they have cost you 0.2c each (1/10th of current casual rate), clearly they want to get 40x that price rather than 10x.  Actually, I don't think they want the 8c at all - this seems like a change designed to encourage more of their customers to choose the bundle instead of the casual rate.  Now instead of being able to send up to 200 texts for less cost than buying a bundle, you will only be able to send up to 50 texts.  I send less than 50 per month, so it still isn't worth paying for a pack.

 

When you consider just how cheap texting is within a plan or pack, it is VERY clear that the cost to providers is next to nothing (or maybe literally nothing).  Skinny will let you send unlimited texts on their $9 plan, WM will sell you a text pack for $4, on Vodafone MyFlex you only pay $1 more for 500 texts than for 50 texts and another $1 again to make it unlimited, 2Degrees gives you unlimited texts on all plans including the $10 prepaid plan, Spark also offers unlimited texts although their plans are dearer than everyone else's.

 

So yeah, for me: 8c instead of 4c per minute - not that big a deal to me as I don't make many calls, 8c instead of 6c per MB - doesn't affect me as I pay for a data pack, 8c instead of 2c per text - really annoys me because a text is a tiny tiny piece of data that really should cost almost nothing.

 

BTW: I used to use Vodafone with 'pay as you go' paying 1c per text - I changed over to WM when Vodafone jumped up the price 10x to 10c per text.

 

It doesn't matter about the cost of a service - the simple reality is a low use customer like yourself is technically unprofitable to them so they need to drive APRU up by convincing people to buy bundles.

sbiddle:

 

It doesn't matter about the cost of a service - the simple reality is a low use customer like yourself is technically unprofitable to them so they need to drive APRU up by convincing people to buy bundles.

 

I have doubts about it being unprofitable to them to have me as a customer.  Clearly it must be true that getting more money out of me would be better for them, but I'm really disappointed that all the telcos in NZ have decided to charge so much for something that is so cheap to them, now no one at all is offering a fair price for the casual rate for texts.

I can see that the full bundle of packs for only $12 per 31 days is very competitive with no one else offering as much for as little.  But for me it is a huge deal that WM offers the packs separately so I can just pay for what I use more of.  I send less than 50 texts on a busy month and probably average less than 20, so I really don't appreciate them trying to coax me into buying the unlimited text pack every 31 days - I'm just not a big texter.  Same with calls, $4 for 200 minutes is pretty good, but I'd average less than 10 minutes per month for calls so it just isn't worthwhile for me to buy the pack.  The data is different because it would only take 67MB at 6c or 50MB at 8c to cost as much as the pack of 500MB, on a quiet month I might not need the pack but on a busy month I'm saving plenty.

For me a smartphone is a pocket computer that runs all sorts of apps that are really useful, including fantastic sat nav apps that can help me tour the country on my motorcycle and find food, petrol & accommodation.  It can also be used as a phone, which is occasionally useful.