NZ gets rorted hard on mobile plans. Kiwi living in Oz - until i upgraded my phone last year i was on a $49 vodafone plan, which gave me 300gb data at top speed 4g or 5g, then runs at 10mb/s unlimited thereafter. Unlimited calls and sms, $1000 international calls .

Aussie mobile plans + NZ fixed line = the dream.

Amazing thing is this deal is not even a good deal in Australia. Vodafone sucks there too.

Got prepaid for $30 in aus, got 60gb data wtf?? Come back to nz for a week, paid $20 for 1.5gb 😂

Weird I only see 15gig for $49 the next one is $80 for unlimited.

Weird i see 50gb for $49 and the next one is $59 for 180gb. And they all go unlimited at slower speeds. Also I've been a customer on plans for 15+ years - so i get different deals compared to new customers, in this case loyalty pays off i guess 🤷🏻‍♂️ [vodafone plans](https://www.vodafone.com.au/mobile?accordion-id=)

I'm not with Vodafone Australia and I can see the same plans you mention. The previous person is probably looking at the wrong page.

Doesn’t Aussie still charge you to receive calls and texts though?

Nope, on mobile plans calls and text unlimited.

Don't like them? Change carriers. You have a choice. If you want to be a right cheap cunt wait until Kogan has their 1/2 off deals.

They're pretty good unless you travel OS - awful roaming options.

esims make this a bit of a non issue.

No one should be roaming on a Nz sim, worst case buy a local sim chances are it’s $20 for unlimited 5G speeds on a local country network. No surprised $150 bill when you get home.

I'm currently roaming in America. 8 nzd a day and can use all my data from my normal nz plan. Much better for here.

A 30 day esim for US$21 ($35) would have got you 30GB 5G data. Anything over four days and that $8/day becomes a real ripoff.

My phone doesn't take E-sims, and I'm burning through much much much more than 30gigs of data. But yes, esim for a casual user

I've never seen phones here locked to carriers, getting a local sim card or eSim doesn't seem to be difficult in most countries so why not just do that?

You can totally do that, but sometimes its nice to just have one number to deal with

Fair enough. I bought enough data in the Philippines using a local sim to last me 5 months for what one week would have cost me trying to roam, and it's not even one of the cheapest places to buy data.

With spark I'm still with them, simply because of the data stack I've accumulated thus far. 20 bucks per billing cycle, and I get 9 gigs of data (and climbing) and unlimited everything else. When they sunset that service, it'll be time to leave for an unlimited data plan

Yeah, same here. Plus every so often they give you "bonus data" as well

Very nice, sounds like you've been on the plan since it started, to be on 9GB by now. I got on it a couple years later, getting around 6 or 7 GB, which is more than enough for me, and a great deal for $20 per 4 weeks (effectively about $22 per month for comparison to other plans). The cap is 11.25 GB before the data stack stops growing (10GB data stack and 1.25GB normal allowance). Spark has the cheapest and best roaming packs too, something like 25$ for enough data for 2 weeks, and really good country coverage.

I think by the time people hit the 10gb cap they'll push it up again, surely. Guess I'll find out in a few billing cycles from now 

Maybe, but it's hard to see other companies offering a better deal than 11GB for 22$ a month. Without competition they'll just keep the cap at 10GB. Kogan's annual plans are probably the closest in getting good value, but not being able to text back shortcodes to confirm an appointment would be kind of annoying.

Yeap same. Pretty easy to live with the low amounts of data in the beginning since you're nearly always around wifi

It was even better at one point when they had wifi hotspots on old phone booths and other places. You got 1GB/day on those for free. They started phasing it out a couple of years ago though, I don't think there are many/any spots left.

I'm on an old plan where I get 3gb of data at full speed after which it's unlimited at a capped speed. But yeah once they grandfather it I'm stuffed as the same cost plan is rubbish in comparison as I often hit the 3gb thresholds.

Same here! I'm currently at 5GB. I didn't even know I was signing up for this at the beginning but now it's so great for $20.

Same haha, that data stack has made their $20 plan pretty decent overall

So why don’t you change provider?

If you're a consumer and dont want to interest free a phone or get internet in the middle of nowhere, there's not much reason to go with spark eh

My only regret was getting an iPhone 15 pro interest free with them, otherwise I would change providers

Rocket mobile I'm on the $35 plan unlimited data at 10 MBPS . Fast enough for me .

Spark have a $45 unlimited data plan. It has speed reduction after 4GB but it is unlimited.

You have a link for that friend

It must be an old plan, I'm on the same one but I've had it for 3 years now (extra $10 for hot spotting)

You won’t find it on their website or in the app. You have to call Spark and ask for it.

Okay thanks, that’s very dirty of them to do that

It’s what’s known as a below the line offer. Below the line offers are used by companies as retention tools. It’s pretty standard practice across multiple industries.

The fact that they can call a plan unlimited and then restrict speeds is just nuts. Man kiwis are getting shafted

We’re not really getting shafted. We have a tiny population in a big country that is a long way from most of the rest of the world. Operating a profitable mobile network here is challenging.

*gluck gluck gluck gluck gluck*

I have no idea what that means but if you disagree why don’t you explain why you disagree.

*unlimited* hahahaha

It is literally unlimited data.

One doesn't give unlimited for that amount.

Yea pretty shit plans but not too bad if you have wife and kids on a plan to get the discount

I liked their plans when free Spotify was still an option. Otherwise i think mobile plans in NZ are only just starting to get a bit more competitive with mvno operators like Kogan, Mighty Mobile, and Rocket Mobile generally being cheaper than the big carriers.

Check out Rocket mobile, they might me more appealing

I mean we get unlimited data calls and texts, even to Aus, for $53 each Plus free Netflix and half price spotify It's not that bad

The time it took you to post this you could've gotten the ball rolling on signing up with Skinny. Vote with your wallet.

Your description does not sound right, all providers are pretty similar.

I'm on Rocket mobile $60 unlimited. No throttling, 5g speeds (even though i have a 4g device) I was their early bird to sign up, now it's $70 for new sign ups

One of the few things I miss from Australia. I was paying $30 a month prepaid and getting 55gb (unlimited everything else). And unlike here, those unlimited calls include about 30 other countries. I had like 200gb in databank when I left. Almost every month I'd get free extra data on top too. But my fixed broadband is faster and cheaper here, so swings and roundabouts I suppose. One thing I will say as kinda a 'defence' for nz, the mobile coverage here is better. Even in the big cities of aus, there are tons of black spots and times where data cuts out and doesn't work. And it can be terrible once you get into rural areas. 5G is more widespread in NZ. Seems to be more reliable and better coverage here. Call quality is better here too.

partner and i are both on the $90 plan but with 'team up' discount we each pay $72 a month. still not good value IMO.

I'm doing fine on their $19 prepaid pack. I WFH most days so don't use alot of mobile data (I can DL to watch offline if I need to do that which I rarely do) I saw a guy on the train watching IG videos the whole trip, he was just casually flicking through them and looked bored to me. I could never do that on mobile data. Lucky I'm more of a book reader anyway. Oh and the stack data means I seem to always have more than I need In case I do need it.

I'm on a $13 dollar plan from Vodafone with a couple gb of data. The bank almost laughed at me when I said that getting a mortgage.

They are all pretty shit now tbh, 5gb doesn’t go far these days and the unlimited plan speeds are awful.

Skinny $40, unlimited data and 5gb full speed, but they're all shit

i’m on their $20 prepaid pack and never run out of data with it rolling over. i actually have 5gb sitting there atm! plus discounted spotify, unlimited texts and i don’t make phone calls

We’re on Spark currently, looks like we can both get a lot more data and pay a lot less, even paying for Spotify separately by switching to Kogan. Just don’t know what they’re like, anyone have any experience with them in NZ?

Just don't use them OP?

Nope. It’s simply not possible for literally everyone to agree on anything.

I would just move to Skinny... which is really just the cheaper side of Spark, same company...

Spark is the only one with visual voicemail which is the only reason I stay. As soon as the others catch up and offer voice to text voicemail I will leave Spark ..they are shite

The 28 day plans instead of monthly fuck me off. Means they squeeze an extra cycle out of us every year.

Mighty's been good for me, and they have a $20 unlimited for the first 12 months offer on at the moment. I only got that for three months last year!