Oceania (Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific) - Cellphone for New Zealand with data plan?

So I heard Telecom is the best option when traveling by car from SKL to ZQN.
Going to NZ with wife in November for 2 weeks.

I am thinking instead of getting a GPS, I just rent/buy a smartphone and use google maps. Plus I need data for work e-mails anyway.

My US phone is CDMA and not GSM, so it will not work. I don't want to spend a fortune on the phone I will rarely use. Should I rent one here in US (not sure where) or should I buy something over there?

Should I rent one here in US (not sure where) or should I buy something over there?

I would not recommend buying a phone in NZ. Maybe there's some specials or deals I'm not aware of, but I found them to be extremely expensive, and that was before the dollar dropped a lot more against the NZ$.

I have bought cheap (really very cheap) GSM phones w/SIM card in the UK for $15 and the US for $20, but the same thing (literally the identical phone) cost me NZ$100.

If you rent or buy a phone here before you leave, make sure it's at least tri-band GSM; regular US GSM phones don't work there either.

So this is where we are going for two weeks (route on Google maps (http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Auckland,+New+Zealand&daddr=Raglan,+Waikato,+New+Zealand+to:Taranaki,+Ne w+Zealand+to:Wellington,+New+Zealand+to:Marlboroug h,+New+Zealand+to:Kaikoura,+Canterbury,+New+Zealan d+to:Akaroa,+Canterbury,+New+Zealand+to:Greymouth, +West+Coast,+New+Zealand+to:Queenstown,+Otago,+New +Zealand&hl=en&ll=-40.946714,172.023926&spn=11.247802,23.225098&sll=-36.84846,174.763332&sspn=0.372541,0.725784&geocode=FbS8zf0dRK1qCin75pxa-0cNbTEXmaJDYe8ABQ%3BFUIyv_0d8lRsCiltiPYZoSoTbTFQ_K JDYe8ABQ%3BFSmCp_0dgLdlCikptrJyNwQVbTF1JwAAAAAAAA% 3BFTLtif0d89NqCinLdOlJ_LE4bTFwtBOiY-8ACg%3BFa6mhf0dXTRWCikN73m6etQ7bTF1JwAAAAAAAA%3BFc 8Def0d6ipaCil1fJE0OiA6bTE2mXmEhu8ABQ%3BFe6bY_0dRkl PCikT3kUJCswzbTGgWnmEhu8ABQ%3BFR4yeP0dTmc0CilTENVN 2T8vbTGgcnmEhu8ABQ%3BFQbhUP0ddJYNCilf3qjX8R3VqTEAp nmEhu8ABQ&mra=ls&doflg=ptk&vpsrc=6&z=6))

Auckland - Raglan - Rotorua - Taranaki - Wellington - Marlborough - Kaikoura - Akaroa - Greymouth - Queenstown

Which network will give me better cellphone coverage on my route? Vodafone or Telecom?

GPS isn't really needed in much of NZ, often there is only 1 road! Quite easy to get around, and even the "big" towns such as ZQN are only a couple of dozen streets. As for price, far cheaper on eBay in the US, just be sure to get an unlocked tri or quad-band GSM phone.

Not sure of your circumstances but we had our own unlocked phone & got a 2 degrees pre-paid sim. Worked very well for us so may be an alternative to Vodafone & NZ telecom

The two similar threads by the OP have been merged for consistency and members' ease.

JDiver, Senior Moderator

Which network will give me better cellphone coverage on my route? Vodafone or Telecom?
Generally speaking, Telecom XT will provide better coverage1. You will need an 850MHz WCDMA (3G) device to use their network.

To get the best coverage using Vodafone, you must have a device which can support 900MHz GSM + 900MHz WCDMA (3G) + 2100MHz 3G.

However, both VFNZ and TNZ are usually more expensive than 2degrees, which has its own network in some cities and roams on Vodafone in others.

There will be parts of your route where there will be no coverage at all from any operator, however this is likely to be limited to stretches of highway. You'll have coverage in the townships and cities and along parts of the highway corridors. I'd recommend having a smartphone based GPS - you could look at a MiFi or similar if you've got a few devices to use. While you don't really need a GPS for getting between cities, getting around IN a city can be confusing, particularly Auckland and Wellington.

1 - This is due to their 850MHz frequency which travels further and penetrates buildings better, and they tried hard to replicate their CDMA coverage footprint

If you need it for work emails, have work pay for it. If they won't, you are in NZ, enjoy the trip, and forget about work :)

I will be in NZ (2 days in North Island and 2 days in South) Thinking of getting a SIM card just for data. Any suggestions which telco I should go with? I have a Google Nexus phone which I believe it is HSPA (3G?) which according to Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_Nexus)

GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
HSPA 850/900/1700/1900/2100

Thx!

Generally speaking, Telecom XT will provide better coverage1. You will need an 850MHz WCDMA (3G) device to use their network.

To get the best coverage using Vodafone, you must have a device which can support 900MHz GSM + 900MHz WCDMA (3G) + 2100MHz 3G.

However, both VFNZ and TNZ are usually more expensive than 2degrees, which has its own network in some cities and roams on Vodafone in others.

There will be parts of your route where there will be no coverage at all from any operator, however this is likely to be limited to stretches of highway. You'll have coverage in the townships and cities and along parts of the highway corridors. I'd recommend having a smartphone based GPS - you could look at a MiFi or similar if you've got a few devices to use. While you don't really need a GPS for getting between cities, getting around IN a city can be confusing, particularly Auckland and Wellington.

1 - This is due to their 850MHz frequency which travels further and penetrates buildings better, and they tried hard to replicate their CDMA coverage footprint

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9650; en-GB) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.524 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

You'll be fine from a technology perspective with any of them. From a price perspective, you'll need to look at what each offers.

Be warned: 2degrees data packs are generally only valid on their network which is not ubiquitously available. You may end up roaming on Vodafone and having to pay different prices for data.

Have alook at these prepay plans http://www.vodafone.co.nz/prepay-smart/

For what it's worth, I go with Telecom whenever in the country. This is because they charge slightly less to sign up compared to Vodafone. In particular, Vodafone tries to charge you $20-30 for the SIM (sorry, can't recall exact amount) and more initial credit. I only wanted a couple hundred megs of data. Check out their $19 prepaid offer: http://www.telecom.co.nz/mobile/mobile/plansandpricing/prepaid/ - includes 500MB data.