Phone to use in New Zealand?

[AFK_Matrix]

Hi,

A friend of mine is going to New Zealand too and she wants to get a phone to use over there for emergencies and to phone the UK. I was thinking it would be better to purchase a cheapo phone over there on pay as you go, but wasn't sure this is the best way so thought I would ask you mobile guru's what the best options were?

Thanks.

 

[Seft]

If you can get an unlocked phone here, it will work on either Vodafone's or 2degrees' networks - Telecom New Zealand uses the incompatible CDMA standard.

2degrees have fairly competitive calling costs - ~20p/min, ~4p/text - for the UK as well as calls within NZ. Only major downside is that you can't text Vodafone UK mobiles, only call them.

PAYG handsets seem to start at 79NZD ~ 35GBP, I'm sure you could do better than that over here.

 

[Mel_P]

Picked up a Vodafone PAYG card for about £15 - and got ~£10 calling credit (2 years ago). Calls to UK / NZ / Oz / Canada about the same - could text UK / NZ. Used in old Nokia unlocked phone.

Mel