Maz1

I'm sure this has been asked before. What mobile phone companies are in NZ. Do we bring our phones with us? The kids are getting new ones for christmas (pay as you go) I understand that there are only 2 companies but cant remember which. The kids phones sim cards are vodafone and O2.

andy&georgina

Vodafone is in NZ

Apple12

Two phone companies on two different systems. Vodafone = sim card, Telecom = no sim card.
If you are bringing over a sim card phone from elsewhere you may need to get it unlocked for it to work on the NZ system, and you will only be able to use the Vodafone network.

Gill and Rob

We had a rather cheap mobile in UK so we just used up our credit at Heathrow took out the sim card and dropped phone in rubbish bin. My afterthought was, were we being watched by security cameras as potential terrorists. Maybe we did not look like typical terrorists, I suppose the 8 large cases and 4 items of hand luggage gave that away. We were soon sorted with a mobile phone after arriving in Auckland. We bought a discount phone card (widely available) to ring back to UK from a phone box.

Rob

Maz

I have a pay-as-you-go phone from Virgin Mobile in the US. If I get it unlocked (if it's not already, apparently 70% of all mobiles come unlocked anyway), and get a SIM card for it, can I use it in NZ? The Virgin Mobile people didn't address SIM cards, but just told me "no, our phones won't work outside the US". How likely is this to be true?

cypherpunk

Sadly Virgin Mobile uses CDMA in the US so the phones can't do GSM and don't have SIM cards so you can't use them on other networks. For anyone else with a US mobile here is a list of the technology used by each company.

UK mobiles all use GSM so will work with Vodafone NZ (but not Telecom NZ) if unlocked.

Maz

Excellent info cypherpunk! Thank you ever so much.

Herm

Hi Maz1 - My son just got back from a trip to the UK. Whilst there he bought a motorola - Vodafone PAYG - got back here and took the UK sim card out and replaced it with a NZ vodafone sim card and works fine - no unlocking and so far no hassle.