For years New Zealand was in the grip of a duopoly when it came to cell phone providers. Vodafone or Telecom were the only choices, and, like certain political parties, there was not much to choose between them. In comparison to cell phone users in other countries, New Zealanders were paying too much.
In 2009, however, a new player came to town. 2 Degrees claimed they wanted to shake up the system, to offer some competition for buyers in a market where there had previously been very little. Some months on from their debut, have they managed to maintain their lower prices? Have Telecom and Vodafone lowered their own to match? What follows is a comparison only of the prepaid plans offered by each company, not the monthly plans.
Standard Prices and Buying a Sim Card
Vodafone has two different kinds of prepay plans, called Simply Prepay and Supa Prepay. With Simply Prepay you pay 12c per text message and 49c per minute for calls within New Zealand. Accessing voice messages costs 20c. Supa Prepay costs 89c per minute for calls, and 20c for text messages. However, with Supa Prepay you can buy addons, which are discussed below.
Telecom offers 89c per minute calls to all mobiles and landlines, and 20c text messaging to all mobiles. 2 Degrees, on the other hand, shines in this department with 44c/min calls to any mobile or land-line in New Zealand and some countries overseas. Standard texts are 9c.
On top of that, 2 Degrees also cuts the price of calls from 44c to 22c, and the cost of text messages to 2c within 30 days of a $20 or more payment. This only applies to calls or texts within their own mobile network or landlines, but it does include some overseas landlines. As well as this they load on a few hundred or so free text messages that can go to any network, depending on the top up amount.
Telecom offers incentives to top up, with varying amounts added for free depending on the amount put on the phone. Vodaphone Supa Prepay offers 100 minutes call time free with every $20 topup.
2 Degrees are also the cheapest when buying a sim card, with theirs costing $2 and including a $2 top up with it. Vodafone offers theirs at a standard $29.95, although they occasionally have it on special or including extras. Telecom is the same as Vodafone, but they include a standard $10 top up. Both Vodafone and Telecom offer another free $10 top up when the phone is registered on the website.
So far, 2 Degrees offers the best standard rates (44c calls/9c texts), the cheapest sim card ($2) and arguably the best incentives for topping up.
Special Features and Monthly Add-Ons
So what do Vodafone and Telecom offer that make them competitive? They both have an internet plan which is superior to the one offered by 2 Degrees, each offering up to 10Mb of internet use for $1 a day, only charged on the days it is used. They charge $1 per 1MB after 10 have been used. 2 Degrees offers internet at a standard 50c per Mb ($5 for 10MB).
Monthly add-on deals are an added incentive. 2 Degrees has a $10 for 1000 text messages add on. They also have a $6 for 50MB of internet add on.
Vodafone and Telecom both have an add-on equivalent of “Bestmates”, which allows the user to elect another phone (within the respective networks) for which they will be allowed unlimited calls and texting (including picture texting and video calls). This costs $6 per person per month for up to 3 people.
Texting add-on deals are also offered, with Vodafone offering TXT2000, which is $10 for 2000 text messages (to other Vodafone users only). Telecom has TXT150, for $6 which might seem weaker, but those texts can be used to any other mobile, and they also currently offer a $12/month deal with 2500 texts.
Vodafone users also have the ability to IOU. They can text IOU to a particular number when they run out of money and get an emergency $5 put on their phone that can be paid back later. This is a very good safety feature for a prepay phone.
So which is the best prepaid option? It depends on what’s wanted. Obviously 2 Degrees has better standard prices, but for a person who spends a lot of time talking to another particular person (or up to three people) it might be better to invest in a Telecom or Vodafone deal to get the bestmate add ons. A big texter would be better off going with Telecom at the moment, as the Telecom 2500 texts deal works out to about half a cent per text.
This isn’t even considering the contract options that are available through all three networks. The best advice is to thoroughly research each option, using estimates on how many texts and minutes will be used each month, to get as much value for money as possible.
This information is current from 21st October 2010.
Rachel Sawaya - Rachel Sawaya is a freelance writer from New Zealand (who also has US citizenship), and currently lives in Auckland, the big smoke of New ...
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