Telecommunications
16 November 2011Vodafone and Telecom head to head
The iPhone 4S is out and Vodafone and Telecom both released pricing plans to go with it. Comparing the two is difficult as their pricing plans don't align. However, it seems that Telecom has the edge in pricing and data this time around.
Before I go into the plans I want to talk about the phone, or rather smartphones in general.
Smartphones aren't just for making calls and texting. They use data; and if you're a heavy user of your phone it can use a lot of data. My personal usage is somewhere between 250-500MB per month on average, but has gone over 1GB when I've been travelling or downloading applications/music/updates or working from a remote location. It could be much higher, but I'm a user who understands how much data I’m using at most times and I use WiFi networks as often as I can (which means the data I use doesn't count against my account).
I'm currently on Vodafone and joined when it still had 3GB on its smartphone plans (if you get a new Vodafone plan you can no longer get 3GB/month as standard, but those already on the plans keep it for as long as they stay with Vodafone and on that plan). Having that much data changes how you use your phone. You start using apps more often, sending more email, checking more maps, taking and sending more photos, reading more and generally just interacting with the phone, and the rest of the world, more often. More data makes your smartphone an integral tool for life.
Not using so much data means your phone may as well be an old brick that can make calls and texts. And while most users might not use as many apps as me and other moderate to heavy users, the lack of data on the plans means there is less incentive to. There is little point in spending over $1000 on a new phone like the new iPhone if you don't use the data functions.
This is why the new plans from the two major telcos seem to be lacking badly. Neither company seems to want to offer up a larger amount of data or the chance to balance more data against fewer calling minutes. Remember these are two companies wanting you to have your smartphone on their network.
The new plans Telecom and Vodafone are offering with the iPhone (with the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models) are listed below. To make things slightly simpler for me I'm only looking at the 24-month plans – there are different subsidies on the 12-month plans.
A this assumes you don't go over the data/text/call minutes and includes the price of the handset.
As you can see, while Vodafone offers many more text messages on its plans, Telecom offers much more data. However, making it slightly more confusing, on the first six months of your Vodafone contract you get 1GB (1000MB) of data before going back to 250 or 500MB.
To make it clearer, here is total amount of data you get on the Telecom and Vodafone plans over the course of 24 months:
A data includes the 1GB you get in the first month.
From this you can see the gap between Telecom and Vodafone in the data plans is quite significant. Of course the plans aren't exactly identical on price or what they offer, but we can even them up a little.
Vodafone offers a data boost, where $20 gets you an extra 1GB of data. Telecom offers a text boost which gives you up to 2500 texts for $10. So now the plans look like this:
A this assumes you don't go over the data/text/call minutes and includes the price of the handset. The Vodafone plans are calculated as not including the boost for the first 6 months of the 24-month plan, as the offer includes 1GB for these months.
Adding these boosts suddenly makes Vodafone much more competitive. But should you have to add $20 to your plan to get 1GB of data? (Or $10 for all those texts?)
Just for comparison here is what I would be doing:
- If I joined Vodafone today I would be on the $65 plan. In a busy month this plan would give me roughly 150 more calling minutes than I would normally use, 1100 more texts than I would send, and over 1000 fewer MB than I'd need. Those 1000MBs would cost me – at a rate of $0.20/MB – $200, and I'd rather not pay that.
- If I joined Telecom today I would be on the $60 plan. In a busy month this plan would give me roughly 50 more calling minutes than I would normally use, 1100 fewer texts than I would send, and over 500 fewer MB than I'd need. Those 500MBs would cost me – at a rate of $0.10/MB – $50; the extra 1100 texts would cost me – at a rate of $0.20/text – $220, and I'd rather not pay either of those.
Oddly, in the two examples above, I would be willing to add the $10 text boost to the Telecom package, but would baulk at the extra $20 on Vodafone. In fact it makes much more sense to add the $20 boost to the $45 Vodafone plan (as seen in table 3).
Generally, though, you shouldn't have to add on data or text packs to make the basic plans worth using in the real world.
Other reading:
- Geekzone created an online table that I based my layout on.
- Technology commentator Lance Wiggs wrote about the Vodafone and Telecom plans and how they stack up for very heavy data-users.
- You can order the Telecom plans here and the Vodafone plans here.
- These new plans will be loaded into our telecommunications comparison site TelMe.org.nz very soon.
Hadyn Green - Technical Writer
Comments
For me, it works out cheaper to buy the (64GB) phone outright ($1350), then use 2degrees pre-pay with the $150 12GB for 6 months "3G data pack". If I'm careful with my usage that gives me 2 GB per month of data. I'm not a big user of voice or text ($20 p/m with 2degrees top-up discount), mostly data, so over 24 months it works out at about $2500:
Phone: $1350
Monthly traffic: $20 + ($150 / 6) = $45
Over 24 months: $1350 + 24 * 45 = $2430
However 2degrees coverage is an issue, but I'm fortunate to spend most of my time within their coverage area.
Dont forget VNZ also has free voicemail and free FCN on all smart business plans. Plus the $100 plan offers free unlimited landline calls and there is other extras in the higher plans. Also if you have 2 or more on the same account, you get free group calling. A load more value with VNZ over the minutes, data and text.
I should mention that when I say "what I would be doing", I'm not including boosts in that. Because in reality what I would be doing is arguing with the person in the store to get the best deal possible :)
And of course after I wrote this Vodafone released their Best Mates package which now lets you select phone numbers on any network (not just Vodafone to Vodafone).
The Telecom with Text Boost option ($110/mth) seems a better option to me. Over 24 months, total cost is only $20 more than Vodafone (for 64gb iPhone) - that's less than $1 for an extra 850mb of data per month! What you also don't mention is that the iPhones go so much better on Telecom's network.
Nothing in here about the different coverage and speeds of the two providers.
I was with voda for my new iPhone 4 due to that free 3 gig of data to begin with.
I lasted about 3 weeks due to the poor reception in Wellington CBD - inside buildings. In Westpac (where i worked at the time) I would get 1 or 0 bars and driving home along State Highway 1 I was constantly getting dropped signal and interruption in my data connection. I moved to Telecom and all the issues (that Voda tried to blame on the phone) went away. I now use my smartphone constantly and rarely if ever get poor signal.
Friends have 2 degrees and rave about the price but they have similar issues as Voda with coverage and drop outs.
I brought my wife a new smart phone to replace her CDMA one that had broken. We were never advised that it would connect to telecom and advise telecom how much data we used, even if the data usage was nil. We were then charged for that connection....not impressed
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