Best pre-pay plan for txt?

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jim.cox

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#265443 22-Jan-2020 07:08

Kai ora katou,

Having had a motorcycle stolen at the end of last year, I'm now installing a gps tracker.

The one I have ordered (yet to arrive) works by receiving/sending txt messages, and as such needs a sim card.

So I'm looking for a provider/plan.

Hopefully, It's not going to generate many messages, so cost per message is not a big issue, but I'm looking for a plan where the balance does not expire.

I've tried looking at the various websites, and quite frankly I'm getting utterly bamboozled and confused.

So do any of you experts have some suggestions?

advTHANKXance

Jim

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sbiddle

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#2403294 22-Jan-2020 07:27

First thing would be to advise what sort of tracker you have. Most of the cheap SMS only ones are still only GSM based so that obviously limits your options of plan considerably as you can only use Vodafone.

Newer 3G/4G based ones are great because if you have an On Account Vodafone plan you can just get a free tablet share SIM and put that in which just uses the main plan.

richms

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#2403393 22-Jan-2020 09:56

Vodafone is the only one you can use with the cheap ones, and IME the ones that support 3g are not reliable enough at holding a network connection when on 2 degrees. I have had to re-send the APN information to them to get them to reconnect when moving between roaming and their actual network. If you are only using SMS that may not bother you since that always seemed to work.

All providers will expire your ballance. They do not remind you other than an SMS to the number in question. Not even the vodafone app will popup to tell you one of the sims you have on the account will expire soon - it will one day just be gone from the list.

Minimum topup is $10 a year, so thats basically nothing.

Richard rich.ms

jim.cox

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#2404535 22-Jan-2020 12:51

sbiddle:

> if you have an On Account Vodafone plan you can just get a free tablet share SIM and put that in which just uses the main plan.

Thank you for that.

I am an existing VF On Account customer so this looks like a good option.

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hio77

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#2404536 22-Jan-2020 12:54

richms:

IME the ones that support 3g are not reliable enough at holding a network connection when on 2 degrees. I have had to re-send the APN information to them to get them to reconnect when moving between roaming and their actual network.

Easy solution to that seems to be using a provider that you dont need to switch apn....

Personally I'd try to look at a CAT M-1 device.

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richms

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#2404541 22-Jan-2020 12:58

hio77:

richms:

IME the ones that support 3g are not reliable enough at holding a network connection when on 2 degrees. I have had to re-send the APN information to them to get them to reconnect when moving between roaming and their actual network.

Easy solution to that seems to be using a provider that you dont need to switch apn....

Personally I'd try to look at a CAT M-1 device.

Its not switching it to a different apn, I just have to send the same APN to it again to make it try to reestablish the connection. Its not like a phone where I can toggle airplane mode off and on again when it loses data.

Is there pricing on M1 stuff yet from spark or just offers to get intouch and have to talk to someone still?

Richard rich.ms

hio77

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#2404542 22-Jan-2020 13:02

M1 devices are rough to get your hands on. It's all businesy

Some of the vendors that are worked with wouldn't even deal with me. I imported a few. Works well.

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sbiddle

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#2404558 22-Jan-2020 13:25

jim.cox:

sbiddle:

> if you have an On Account Vodafone plan you can just get a free tablet share SIM and put that in which just uses the main plan.

Thank you for that.

I am an existing VF On Account customer so this looks like a good option.

Won't share the SMS though - only data. Old school SMS based trackers are cheap for a reason - newer data based devices are the norm now for anything serious.

jim.cox

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#2404638 22-Jan-2020 14:16

sbiddle:

Won't share the SMS though - only data. Old school SMS based trackers are cheap for a reason - newer data based devices are the norm now for anything serious.

Its a 3G device, does txt and data, but I intend to communicate with it using txt only.

Guess I'll just go with a standard VF pre-pay plan

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