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That's for unlimited (as in, no data caps, no throttling, no rate shaping) and 100Mbps (200Mbps on Cable). You can get 1Gbps for an extra NZ$30/month (NZ$20/month for cable, because VF owns the cable infrastructure).

That US$70 for 1Gbps unlimited is a little more (NZ$106.46 at today's exchange rate) than the NZ$100 for 1Gbps cable. Call it equivalent given current fluctuations. Of course, you have a choice of several ISPs as well (except for Cable).

Ahh, so that's why I can listen to the FM radio on my cellphone without using headphones as an antenna.

https://www.vodafone.co.nz/sho...
http://nz.mobiwire.co/
http://nz.mobiwire.co/dakota

All of the cellphones that our family has are "feature" phones and all of them have an FM receiver. On my latest phone I can listen to the radio without using headphones, so they are not absolutely necessary.

https://www.vodafone.co.nz/sho...
http://nz.mobiwire.co/
http://nz.mobiwire.co/dakota

Around here, an iPhone is yours for a mere $1049 NZD ($862 USD); completely unlocked, completely carrier agnostic, no contract (no connection either!). New Zealanders have no qualms about paying this sort of price tag because we view 'connection' and 'phone' as completely seperate.

(There is some overlap; for example, a 24 month contract with Vodafone will give you $250 NZD towards your phone. Same deal on month-by-moth costs a little more per month and has no discount on your phone.) Oh, and yeah, there's no unlimited data plan.

I'm sure such a model would be profitable in the US market; but many consumers might balk at the up-front cost so they might get few takers.

hi antdude,

Vodafone NZ http://www.vodafone.co.nz/iphone/plans.jsp is the only "official carrier", but its not an exclusive deal, presumably the others could also carry the iPhone.

The plans are expensive if you ask me, look at how little "talk" we get compared to in the USA! No NZers really talk on a cellphone, for decades now we've all txted. Of course, the iPhones bought online or from a store are "unlocked", and you can pop the Vodafone SIM out, to go to another network. Simple!

Overall, Telecom has the best network I think, in terms of speed, definitely, I'm sticking with prepaid on Vodafone as soon as I get my new iPhone 4 (out the 30th here), but might change later.

New Zealand is a small country, granted, but I've never had a "dropped call" here. I cant remember anyone I know ever having a dropped call. Yes, we have areas with no signal at all, in the middle of nowhere http://www.vodafone.co.nz/coverage/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_signal

What I'd like to know is if dropped calls are common worldwide? When I hear online tales of "five dropped calls every day" or "I cant even use my phone in my house/I can only use my phone in one spot"...its crazy! How did things get this way? I've heard the blame being dumped on lack of regulation....and certainly, if the USA seems to be the only place where this (commonly) happens, that could be reasonable?

Although, a friend is on a business trip to Turkey, and his hotel Wifi sucks, he keeps dropping off Skype calls, garbled audio etc, so perhaps that counts as "dropped calls" too ? :)

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/services/phoneinsure.jsp

With plans like this, why would you not break your phone to get a new one?

"I lost it"

"ok heres a new one, thatll be 125nzd" ( like 60 usd)

And that coverage only costs 110/year~

So effectively you can get a new phone every year for $200 even if it is a $1000 phone you keep replacing. Sounds like a good deal to me. And its not like I would feel guilty about ripping the company that decided 1kB worth of sms should be priced the same as 1MB worth of raw data.

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/symphonia/

I didnt think you could have a BB though, sorry.

My cousin just moved from her Pearl to a iPhone 3G, got it secondhand, and loves it very much so far. She paid about $600 american for a 6 month old iPhone, sold exclusively by Vodafone NZ, put her new Telecom XT (other carrier's new GSM network) sim card in...it just works! No hacking needed, most phones worldwide are not locked to a carrier like in the US market.

Have you played around with an iPhone before? If you are dead against an iPhone and love your Blackberry, thats cool, maybe think about an iPod Touch then, you can probably get most of the cool things of the iPhone on that, no GPS tracking your every move, no data plan/carriers to worry about ... :)

Ridiculously Expensive? How much is a new Pearl? And a new iPhone, if you bought them brand new and "unsubsidised" or whatever you might call it where you live. Here in NZ I never see people with BlackBerries, and they often cost more than the iPhone does outright! Checking vodafone NZ here, a brand new out of stock (maybe not on sale here yet?) iPhone 3GS 32GB is ....1320 NZD, a standard Blackberry Bold is 1200, the Pearl (its called the 8110) is 900, so 400 dollars more for a top of the line iPhone, the 32GB most expensive one, than the cheapest, not so new Blackberry. The cheapest iPhone 3G (8GB) is basically 980 NZ. http://www.vodafone.co.nz/iphone/8gb-iphone-3g.jsp

For all the cool features, the sex appeal, the apps, you wouldnt pay an extra 80 NZD (probably about $50 american) for an iPhone? 50 american dollars, my guess, is really not that much money if you really want the iPhone.

If people want to steal iPhones, its because they are so cool! Nobody goes "oh man, lets steal a 30GB brown Zune!" do they? They want something cool! You really consider "mass appeal", "coolness" to be a negative thing?!

We've said all we really can expect to say, I dont expect you to rush off and buy an iPhone, I just wanted to mention some of the things you were not 100% right about. I know there are people who like their Crackberries, dont worry, I wont put you in rehab :)

Have a great day :)

Everyone who loves their all-you-can-eat iPhone data: enjoy it while it lasts."

In New Zealand on our iPhone plans,

• the most expensive, $130/month, gets us 500MB.
• The cheapest, $40/month, gets us 250MB.

All only available on a 24 month contract. My heart bleeds you for America.

I think I speak for all Canadian cell phone users when I say that you Kiwis have it really good, relative to us, of course.

Here's an example:

http://your.rogers.com/business/wireless/plans_services/business_plans.asp?plan=dataservice&cat=2&typ=2

Everyone who loves their all-you-can-eat iPhone data: enjoy it while it lasts."

In New Zealand on our iPhone plans,

• the most expensive, $130/month, gets us 500MB.
• The cheapest, $40/month, gets us 250MB.

All only available on a 24 month contract. My heart bleeds you for America.

"I know things are more expensive in the US, "

Really???

Vodafone NZ

That's just the tip of the iceberg over here. I'm sure there are more countries with higher rates but, well, I don't really feel sorry for the US if that is all that is being paid. For shits and giggles, have a look at the phone costs and plans. It's fun for the whole family. BTW, I only pick on them because I am using them at the moment, albeit, not for their data plans.

Very cheap compared to New Zealand http://www.vodafone.co.nz/mobile-data/3g-broadband-plans.jsp Broadband Pro plan will cost you $69.95 NZD (48 USD or 24.21 UK pound) a month on a 24 month contract, with a 3GB cap per month

You are not complaining about $30 for 450 minutes/month are you? Try here and see what some of us have to "happily" live with.... CliffH

7 cents a minute seems insanely cheap to me - either that or New Zealand cellphone costs are insanely expensive. In NZ, voice costs around $1/minute on cellphone. (I pay $20 monthly with Vodafone for 20 GSM minutes; this is an entry-level plan but fairly standard). For a 1100 minute plan, I'd pay $370/month - $0.33/minute, rock-bottom mininum.

Meanwhile, texts begin at 20c each and for $10/month drop to 0.5c each.

http://vodafone.co.nz/personal/plans-services/plan s/you-choose/index.jsp

yeah, they will 'cos it provides a more reliable income source.

Visit http://www.vodafone.co.nz/promos/txt-a-park/txt_a_ park.jsp?item=txt_a_park

Short story is that you TXT the parking meter and park your car. Have had this for about 3 years in NZ so am a bit surprised it isn't widely used elsewhere

We have had TXT-a-Park for a while here in NZ - http://www.vodafone.co.nz/promos/txt-a-park/txt_a_ park.jsp?item=txt_a_park

They charge a 50c transaction fee which is pretty steep, especially when you are only paying $3.50 for the actual parking. Having the system txt you when your parking is almost up and email receipts is a great idea which I wish they would implement here.

Vodafone New Zealand has this already. It costs $3.50NZD per track and you only have access to the song on that particular mobile. Lose your mobile and you lose the song. You can't transfer it to a PC either. /b

http://vodafone.co.nz/vlive/3g/experience_music.js p?item=experience3g&subitem=music

NZ$3.50 each though - no way I'm going to be paying that...

Vodafone has just released a series of phones that meet the majority of your requirements.
Not sure about the really, really tough and there not really, really small.
Vodafone has a partnership with Verizon, so they may become available in the US in the future. Read about it here http://www.vodafone.com/article/0,3029,CATEGORY_ID %253D504%2526LANGUAGE_ID%253D0%2526CONTENT_ID%253D 258796,00.html?
and Vodafone New Zealand has more details http://www.vodafone.co.nz/mobiles/simply/index.htm l

Vodafone just released their Simply phone. I just got one for my mum and even she can use it. This is her third mobile phone and the only one that she has been able to use properly.

The Vodafone Simply is the phone you seek.
That phone has recently been introduced here, too. Except that out of all the ringtones it has, none of them are actually a simple *RING*!
You think they could have got *that* right, I mean the reason people would choose this phone is because it's supposedly simple to use.

Vodafone in New Zealand have just launched a series of phones that do just that (ie being a phone) in response to a customer feedback. Have a look here http://vodafone.co.nz/mobiles/gen/mobile_details_v f_simply_vs1_curvy.jsp?hd=foryou&st=mobiles&ss= and http://vodafone.co.nz/mobiles/gen/mobile_details_v odafone_simply_vs2.jsp?hd=foryou&st=mobiles&ss= These phones were launched a week or so ago so I don't know how well they work, but at least somebody is listening to consumers.

Vodafone in New Zealand have just launched a series of phones that do just that (ie being a phone) in response to a customer feedback. Have a look here http://vodafone.co.nz/mobiles/gen/mobile_details_v f_simply_vs1_curvy.jsp?hd=foryou&st=mobiles&ss= and http://vodafone.co.nz/mobiles/gen/mobile_details_v odafone_simply_vs2.jsp?hd=foryou&st=mobiles&ss= These phones were launched a week or so ago so I don't know how well they work, but at least somebody is listening to consumers.

Vodafone in New Zealand has a program called TXT-a-Park that allows Kiwis to pay parking meters with a cell phone. Although there is a 50 cent surcharge, it's useful if you don't have change.

It is. But it depends how often you use it. There are also different pre-paid plans aswell, charging different rates at different times etc. You might not have been on the ideal plan.

From the perspective of another New Zealander, I doubt the following statement, "Lots of people I know were spending hundreds of dollars a month on text charges with Vodafone"...

The voice mobile service in NZ is more expensive than most developed country. Here links to the most generous plan from Vodafone that is the major rival against Telecom. It is something like NZD$40 (about US$25) for 300 min of offpeak min. $1/min on peak hours... Forget about the daytime plans... They are 5 times more expansive. Since voice service is so expensive, most secondary and university students rely on text message for communication... Many of them are on prepaid as they cannot afford the monthly fee.

Here comes to the point: many of them found $40 expensive, do they have the few hundred buck for texting? Students in general don't earn much. Some university students receive allowance from the government at a rate of $500/month. Accomodation can easily be more than that...

IMO, the current chaos is created by the "all you can eat" mentality. I know many secondary students start sending bulk forward messages, joke etc... Before then, texting was for something more crucial like "I got stuck in the traffic", "Let's meet at xyz 7pm tonite"... It really catches Telecom off guard... We cannot exclude the possiblity that some of the texting records are broken with the aid of computers.

Telecom is the bully in the local telco market... But, in this event, I don't blame them for cutting the $10 unlimited texting deal... It is clear since the first day that the $10 deal is a limited promotion with time limit...

There have been times when I've been wondering where the nearest {insert favorite exotic food} restaurant is.

We're already moving in that direction in NZ, though perhaps not to as sophisticated a degree as to give directions.

Those using Vodafone mobiles have this option (see the Sim2 link) which will let you find restaurants, ATMs etc in the immediate area. It's been available for at least a year that I can remember, and probably longer than that.

The good thing about this option is that it's pull rather than push - the phone user requests the information, it isn't thrown at them indiscriminately.

It was only a matter of time, and there is enormous potential for such things - for both good and evil.

Not many people know this - But the GSM licence says that there must be two GSM providers in each country. That is why the US took so long to get GSM.

What are you smoking? Theres no such thing as a "GSM license". There are some countries with only one GSM provider -- such as New Zealand. NZ only has one GSM provider: Vodafone New Zealand. It's been the only GSM provider in New Zealand for 10 years now. Go and do your homework before you write up comments with no facts.

As to your other question, I use AT&T Wireless. I'm in Seattle and it seems to be the most reliable in this area. Good reception, very few dropped calls, and reasonable pricing (as long as you stay in your own calling area).

Where I live, I have only two choices of mobile phone providers.

...picture phones are being plastered all over TV advertisements.

VodaFone are marketing a service called PXT (like txt messages, but pictures, haha). It uses the Sony Ericsson T68i mobile, but apart from that seems pretty similar.

Granted, I don't think any of these are of sufficient quality to grace the pages of National Geographic magazine anytime soon, but they do seem pretty useful for a quick "hey, look at this!". I only hope that carriers can agree on an decent interoperability protocol, and don't charge high data rates for transmitting pictures, which would really shoot this in the foot.

...picture phones are being plastered all over TV advertisements.

VodaFone are marketing a service called PXT (like txt messages, but pictures, haha). It uses the Sony Ericsson T68i mobile, but apart from that seems pretty similar.

Granted, I don't think any of these are of sufficient quality to grace the pages of National Geographic magazine anytime soon, but they do seem pretty useful for a quick "hey, look at this!". I only hope that carriers can agree on an decent interoperability protocol, and don't charge high data rates for transmitting pictures, which would really shoot this in the foot.

European, many Asian (not all), and nearly all of Australasia are using this great standard known as GSM (and GSM2 and GPRS are coming soon to a quality vendor near you).

The great thing about GSM is that I can use my GSM phone in nearly every part of the world I go to. Most countries have standardised on the bands used and so its a breeze to travel with. The only time a tri-band phone is needed is when you head for the US.

I have no problems with GSM and although there are some limitations, they're really not anything worth complaining about. I can send SMS messages to my friends in Australia, England, Germany and they can reply. Why would I want anything else?

In New Zealand we really only have two providers. Telecom NZ and Vodafone. Telecom NZ has lost huge market share to Vodafone because the corporates want to be able to use their phone from anywhere, without a hassle. Telecom only allows you to go to Sydney from NZ if you want to use international roaming. The are about to roll out CDMA (end of July) but even that only increases the roaming capabilities marginally. With so many using GSM already, GPRS is going to have a much larger market share than CDMA.

Its great when friends come over from the UK because before they even get through customs (but after they're off the plane) we can be talking away, making sure someone is there to collect them. If it wasn't for GSM, this would be nearly impossible.

GSM is the most widely used network in the world. I have always lamented the fact that if I want to go to the US or Canada, I have to make special arrangements, rent a phone and probably lose a lot of functionality. I have never been able to understand why it is that Americans can't just bite the ego bullet and accept something that was not developed by the US and use something the majority of the rest of the world is very much enjoying. Surely the frequencies used is not the issue... However it would be a lot better if there was a global standard, instead of the US and the Rest.

Smells very vapourware - at this stage, anyway. I'd love to see the day though that this stuff appears as a drop-in replacement for my Palm (maybe not, it's one of those internal ones, I smell a hack :) here) or laptop.

(Which as it happens, battery technology for cellphones on any of the carriers in .nz (Telecom or Vodafone are pretty bad at the moment. Could be useful.)