"3" Feel at Home in NZ anyone?

[Alanb]

Has anyone used "3" Feel at Home for data in New Zealand?

 

If so have you any comments as regards speed and coverage?

 

Vodafone is the major player in NZ, and I think that an association with any other provder would result in poor service.

[RogerC]

It is no better or worse than any other provider.  NZ mobile/internet is hit/miss outside the main cities.  We use two phones when out there.  One for our '3' account and another for a NZ prepaid sim card.  This combination works well for us as we can international call on 3 and internal NZ call on the other

Bottom line.....we are going again and will be sticking with our system of two mobiles....one on 3 and the other on NZ sim.

[Geeco]

Alanb - 2018-01-20 6:32 AMHas anyone used "3" Feel at Home for data in New Zealand?If so have you any comments as regards speed and coverage?Vodafone is the major player in NZ, and I think that an association with any other provder would result in poor service.

When I am away from my home country I leave my phone on roam. This ensures you will pickup the strongest signal but not necessarily the cheapest carrier. I tend to use my phone only for local calls & use free wifi offered with our accomodation for data. Cheers,

[StuartO]

Three have been getting more hard nosed about exploitive charges so their "Feel at Home" service outside the EU is a bit of a conn.  You get free calls to and fro UK (within your allowance) but local calls are charged at international rates of over £1 per minute - beware! 

[Alanb]

My thanks to Roger, Gary, and Stuart for their replies.

 

My interest is principally in data, as our use of voice and SMS is quite low.

 

For voice and SMS on previous visits we used a Vodafone NZ Supa Prepay SIM and kept the account open for several years. The charges for calls and SMS to the UK were attractive, but at an obligatory $20 annual top up, we found that we were amassing what was for us unuseable credit, and decided to let go.

 

For data I used a USB modem again with a prepay SIM. We found that given the mountainous nature of NZ, coverage was quite good. We did not expect and did not get a signal in sparsely populated, landlocked mountain valleys.

 

Last year we switched one of our phones to "3", but in order to have a local number we will probably use a $5 Pay and Go SIM (Vodafone NZ's current offering) with a $20 top up on casual rates. Like Roger we will probably have phones with "3" and Vodaphone SIM, but for SMS to the UK we will most likely use Vodafone so as to make best use of the credit.

 

Vodafone NZ also offer a prepaid visitor SIM, but for our six week trip, and our low rate of use, it would be so economic.

 

As regards data for my netbook, that is where the quandary lies, with the Vodafone USB modem with Preypay SIM, useage has been about 2GB over 6 weeks. However I am considering using an unlocked "3" pocket wifi unit with either Vodafone NZ or "3" Feel at Home SIM. Hence my coverage query. Another problem is that "3" Feel at Home bans the use of a local hot spot. Is that not what my pocket wifi is?

 

Roger,

 

Please, I would be very interested to be informed as to whether or not you experienced any difference in coverage between "3" and Vodafone NZ.

 

Stuart,

 

Sensing that it is "feel at home", I found calls to NZ numbers at 56.2p per minute from "3", thanks for the warning. Strangely calls to Australia are much cheaper.

 

Gary,

 

Subject to confirmation, I think that I have to enable roaming in order to use "3" Feel at Home.

 

Alan

 

[Sunseekers2]

Have just returned from NZ and used my 3 enabled phone. I also had a Vodaphone NZ sim which you can get as you get off the plane before immigration which gave me 200 mins 200 texts and 5gb of data. I could also call home (UK) and other countries with that allowance and don't forget with data you can also use whatsapp. It cost $49 NZ not cheap but gave me 4g and local calls which 3 didn't.