This is becoming the hottest sales item for the phone companies and revenue is passing SMS texting. The main reason is the very high pricing of the plans. In NZ this is mainly due to the lack of competition, but the Australian plans are not much better. On a trip to UK this year I used a 'Top-Up-and-Go' plan from the Vodafone shop at Heathrow due to the very high international roaming rates. If 3G service was not available it used the 2G service GRPS via the cellphone network, which gave speeds similar to dial-up. We used 6 pounds of data in 6 weeks. But we turned it on in the Irish Republic and got a good roaming connection that used up the remaining 9 pounds of data in about 2 minutes! Below I have listed some prices that might help you decide whether to bring a mobile broadband service with you to use in NZ. The roaming data costs are nearly 1000 times higher than the domestic rates. They really don't want you to do it, do they? I think the management of these companies have their brains stuck on cellphone data use for a few emails. Someone could easily send you a 4MB photo from their camera, or you might get a Windows or antivirus update of that size - look at the cost of that while roaming! (Prices are converted to $NZ at UK/NZ 0.38 and AUS/NZ 0.78).

Here is a page that compares all the UK pre-pay services and a similar page comparing Australia Mobile Broadband plans. This table is correct as at 11 Feb 2010.

I no longer sell callback phone services, as a range of cheap phonecards are available from most shops and dairies in NZ. I suggest you avoid the cards with high rates from NZ Telecom, NZ Post. Here are some examples:

• WorldNet prepaid phone cards
• EasyCall

Vodafone operates a GSM service at 900 MHZ in NZ. They have a Prepay Connection Pack for visitors to New Zealand. The pack contains a local Vodafone Simcard and $15 of prepay airtime, and costs $35. To purchase a Prepay Connection Pack call in to any Vodafone branch nationwide or order online at Vodaphone.

A new GSM operator, 2Degrees has brought some long needed competition to the NZ market, they started operations in August 2009 with calling and texting rates about 50% of the rivals, (but not data). Their phones and SIM cards are in supermarkets and local dairies.

You can rent GSM mobiles from the Vodaphone shops at the major airports, here are the rates.

Telecom operate a CDMA cellphone service that is incompatible with GSM. They have recently introduced a GSM-based WCDMA 3G service known as XT that was launched in May 2009. Type SIM card into their search box to see if your GSM phone is compatible.

Here is a phone rental company Cellphone Rentals NZ.

They hold a wide range of GPS units for tramping, hunting, fishing, dataloggers for vehicle fleet operations, marine and NZ street and topographical map software is available.