Prepaid cell phones
Feb 28th, 2004, 11:20 AM
#1
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Prepaid cell phones
Has anyone ever used a prepaid cell phone in Australia and/or New Zealand that could be used to call home? Did you purchase in US before trip or in Oz or NZ?
Thanks for any info.
RitaA
Thanks for any info.
RitaA
Feb 28th, 2004, 11:53 AM
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You can do three things 1/ get International roving on your mobile phone 2/ get one at the Airport in Sydney on arrival 3/ get yourself a phone card in Australia and phone home with that which will cost 1/100th of the price.
Feb 28th, 2004, 12:43 PM
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Problem is, if Rita is from North America she probably won't have a GSM-standard phone.
Rita, if you check the Asia board I'm pretty sure someone has provided advice on this problem, most recently only a week or two ago when someone asked about renting a phone. I think the 'someone' is a China expert who signs himself Peter N-H. A search on that board by name or subject should bring it up.
Maybe my memory is letting me down and it was on this board and not by Peter N-H at all. I think I have Liz's CRAFT (Can't Remember a F*** Thing) problem.
From (unreliable) memory the suggestion was to buy a tri-band phone in the US that will take a (GSM) prepaid SIM card, which you can buy anywhere in Aust/NZ. I think the logic is that it would probably be cheaper than renting anyway, and you can use it anywhere on future travels. GSM (Global Standard for Mobiles) is almost universal outside North America.
Rita, if you check the Asia board I'm pretty sure someone has provided advice on this problem, most recently only a week or two ago when someone asked about renting a phone. I think the 'someone' is a China expert who signs himself Peter N-H. A search on that board by name or subject should bring it up.
Maybe my memory is letting me down and it was on this board and not by Peter N-H at all. I think I have Liz's CRAFT (Can't Remember a F*** Thing) problem.
From (unreliable) memory the suggestion was to buy a tri-band phone in the US that will take a (GSM) prepaid SIM card, which you can buy anywhere in Aust/NZ. I think the logic is that it would probably be cheaper than renting anyway, and you can use it anywhere on future travels. GSM (Global Standard for Mobiles) is almost universal outside North America.
Feb 28th, 2004, 01:28 PM
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Here is what I am doing. I live in the US. I have a tri-band Nokia GSM phone. I emailed vodaphone in NZ and they reserved a SIM card for me. As I am arriving late, they will hold the card for me at the Info center in AKL airport. I will get to NZ and having stored all the contact info, itinerary, etc on my laptop, I will exchange my SIM with the vodaphone SIM, transfer the info back into the phone and Voila! all my info is in the phone w/o the roaming costs of my own SIM. Of course all the contact #'s I have will need to be preceded by the +1 (US) int'l call code. Isn't this geeky stuff way too cool!
btw-Vodaphpne NZ were so nice about everything. Hopefully it will all work out.
btw-Vodaphpne NZ were so nice about everything. Hopefully it will all work out.
