vodafone NZ’s iphone prices
Oh dear. It’s even on TechCrunch.
Vodafone’s pricing is, shall we say, interesting. No flat rate data, not too bad minutes allowances, but whats up with the device pricing? For that price, I really hope these devices are not locked to Vodafone, because the low end one is around the same price as the no-contract (prepaid?) version here in the UK.
The low end price plan is almost exactly the same cost as the plan I’m planning on getting – £30 vrs $80 – with nearly the same minutes and texts(75/150 vrs 120/600 – ok, not the same, but close-ish). The main difference is, I get unlimited data, either 3G or Wifi via The Cloud or BT Openzone hotspots, which have very good coverage in places I tend to go. And most of what I use is data, especially as O2-O2 calls are free, and Leonie is moving to O2, so thats 90% of my calling.
If VFNZ upped the data caps – say, 1GB, 3GB and unlimited on the three plans – I think it would be about right. But whats there is pretty much useless. Or even gave an option for unlimited data for $30 on top.
Atleast, unlike AT&T, they dont charge extra to use ActiveSync to Exchange. Thats just sad.
Same rates in Italy… Vodafone sucks
They had the perfect opportunity to ride the IPhone hype and lock in many many MANY people who otherwise won’t consider signing up to a data plan, but now they sort of blew it. I myself was very excited, particularly after seeing the email from Vodafone on Monday stating that pricing for the IPhone “starts at” $199 for the handset. To me, that was false marketing as “starts at” means entry level, not the most expensive premium level.