girl geek adjacent

One of the deciding factors in buying the iPhone was that it would work without hitch on both Telecom XT and Vodafone 3G. I have recently become dissatisfied with the speed of Vodafone 3G broadband and their call reception. I consistently get 0.11mbps up/down at my desk at work, and a recent call to Taupo got dropped a whole four times. Very annoying. So I have contemplated a change of carriers for the first time since 2002.

I emailed Vodafone and let them know that I am disappointed in their 3G and this is what they had to say:-

Dear Alison,

Thank you for your website enquiry.

I am sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with the 3G Broadband Speeds provided by Vodafone.

What has attracted me to Telecom’s new XT network is the speed. I use mobile internet more than I do calling and text messaging these days. In the space of 6 months my mobile useage have been revolutionised by mobile broadband with the likes of Gravity on the Nokia and now this blessed iPhone.

This week Telecom and Vodafone have exchanged blows in an effort to drag iPhone customers one way or another. And one person on twitter even had a spreadsheetpalooza comparing the costs involved in either telco.

Telecom offered up a $600 account credit if you sign up to their OneRate180 plan for 24 months, and they would give you free data upto 240mb per month. You would have to pay for a text messaging bundle on top of that and purchase an iPhone outright.

Vodafone offered up 1000 free MMS messages and 3gig of data free to all users on an iPhone plan for 3 months starting from your next billing date. Your text bundle remains untouched, ditto voice minutes.

But there are more difficulties involved. I still have $1100 odd of credit on my Vodafone account which I won through the 3G Guy promotion. If I move networks, I will forfeit this credit and have to pay an additional $360 + GST early termination charge.

So will I move to XT? I’m seriously contemplating it. But before I ink an agreement with anyone, I will put, to quote Richard Hammond, put them both to the test in my iPhone and decide from there.