Real noob question but I need the help. :)

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JayADee

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Topic # 65250 31-Jul-2010 21:14

Like ZollyMonsta, I'm buying from the online store outright. It's my first ever cell phone. I've had an ipod Touch until now, love it and use it daily for work and play but wanted a phone to communicate with Hubby occasionally and don't want to carry two devices.

My question is, how do I decide which sim card and what company to go with? ie. Vodafone, telecom, 2 degrees?? Does coverage vary? I'm in the Eastern Bay.

What I want is to be able to make calls once in a while, text once in a while (not sure if hubby will take to that or not so it may be a very short experiment) and in emergencies to be able to look at a google map on the road as I'm going on a trip in a few months where I may need to. Maybe even drop a few emails to the hubby while I'm away. I remember something about a dollar a megabyte somehow... I definitely do not want a plan!

So you can see my needs are not heavy as I mainly use wifi at home and work, rarely phone and primarily use the ipod I already have for apps, books and audio books and expect to use the phone mostly the same way. Plus hopefully it will also replace the need for a digital camera for this same upcoming trip.

Any advice how to choose companies/sims?

It may seem like a simple question to you but I'm very telephone challenged!
I do know it needs a micro sim.

SaltyNZ

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Reply # 360820 31-Jul-2010 21:21

Forgive my impertinence, but it doesn't really sound like you need an iPhone. A decent 2G phone will do most of that, and a cheap 3G phone all of it. If you already have a touch, save your money!

Just my 2c.

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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

JayADee

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Reply # 360831 31-Jul-2010 21:58

I don't want to carry two things (pocket space is limited!) and no way am I giving up the functionality of my ipod and its apps. I take it everywhere.

The ipod won't go to waste anyway, it's upgrading Hubby's 1G which he got from me when I got this 2G.

The man's phone is with Vodafone so my default position is get one of their sims. I just thought maybe there might be reason not to, but maybe I'm over-thinking it!

freitasm

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Reply # 360832 31-Jul-2010 22:00

Where do you live? Do you travel a lot outside that area?

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Linuxluver

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Reply # 360842 31-Jul-2010 22:17

JayADee: I don't want to carry two things (pocket space is limited!) and no way am I giving up the functionality of my ipod and its apps. I take it everywhere.

The ipod won't go to waste anyway, it's upgrading Hubby's 1G which he got from me when I got this 2G.

The man's phone is with Vodafone so my default position is get one of their sims. I just thought maybe there might be reason not to, but maybe I'm over-thinking it!

I'll agree with SaltyNZ. Sounds like you just need a 3G phone. Or you could get an HTC Magic off Trademe for about $350 and it would give you all you're asking for....especially the Goolge Maps part....and cost a LOT less than an iPhone. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera, so the photos are reasonable....and Internet is reachable via wifi or 2G or 3G. It's an awesome phone for not much cash.

I used to own two before upgrading. I made a video of mine. You can have a look here.

I was even able to set the phone up so my own iPod Touch could wifi "tether" to the phone and access the Internet through the phone's 3G. The HTC Magic can do wifi as well....just like the iPod Touch.

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JayADee

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Reply # 360856 31-Jul-2010 22:38

I live in the Eastern Bay of Plenty and no I don't travel out of it that much.

Like I said, can't live without the apps and don't want to carry two things. I don't carry a purse; it goes into my pocket. I use the audio book player every day multiple times per day, the ebook reader, notepad, dictionary/etymology/thesaurus (wedict pro which I don't think can be beat, it even pronounces the words out loud), calculator and wifi every day, occasionally vnc if I need to hook up to my PC at home, bible reader, guitar tuner and sometimes even "What Bird? NZ" not to mention the occasional game of Galcon, Cube Runner, Chopper Pilot, Raging Thunder and Sextuple Word Challenge. I also am asked on occasion to check our wifi network at work with wififofum and I couldn't live without the calendar and contact book which is synced to my PC. And now that WXC is letting us use softphones I was thinking of setting it up as an extra handset over wifi with Fring. I've even used it to record my guitar which it does surprisingly well with the headphone mic.

In short, since I have it glued to me all anyway and I also think it's time to get a phone, I want an ipod touch with a phone in it because the combination would suite me perfectly.

It's moot in any case, I've ordered myself one for my birthday. Now it is a matter of which sim.

freitasm

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Reply # 360936 1-Aug-2010 09:35

JayADee: I live in the Eastern Bay of Plenty and no I don't travel out of it that much.

This information gives a bit more to work with. Since you are just looking for the telco, knowing you are in BoP means you won't have a 2degrees local cell site - roaming on Vodafone. 2degrees is about to announce its 3G plans, but something tells me you would be better off on 2degrees if you had a local site.

Since this is not the case you now have to decide between Telecom and Vodafone.

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revolushn

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Reply # 362122 3-Aug-2010 09:46

Prepay is all well and good, But if you stay on the $1 a day, your google maps will smash that pretty quickly. Better to go to a prepay data "plan". Then you have the freedom of using it for other things like email and downloading apps if you wish as well.

I will use telecom as an example (purely because I know their plans better)

They have $6 for 20mb

If you stay under your 10 Mb per day, sweet you will get 60Mb for $6. But if you go over 10mb then they really sting you.

Also, if you are on the casual rate, you only have to use a couple of kb and it will charge you $1. you could get to the end of the month and (using it every day) have spent $30 for less than 1Mb

So it really depends on how you want to use data. Paying $6 or $12 gives you the freedom to use it when you want. Casual rate means that if you just use it once or twice a month (and stay under 10Mb per day) you can do what you want for a pretty cheap price.

Either way, if you go a month without using data, you wont get charged a cent.

Like I said, I'm not too up on the Voda data plans. Doesn't have the speed I want, so I don't use it.

NonprayingMantis

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Reply # 362146 3-Aug-2010 10:21

I can't see whether you mention it or not, but have you bought an iPhone4, or a 3GS?

The reason I ask is that the iPhone4 is quad band, meaning both Voda and Telecom will have 3G coverage, but the 3GS will not work at 3G speeds on Voda's extended network, meaning the XT coverage is superior for that phone.