The countdown until the iPhone 5 is available for purchase in New Zealand is getting so close. Within the last couple of days Telecom has opened for pre-orders and released their plans that will be available for the iPhone 5.
There is no telling how long it will take for your iPhone 5 to arrive if you pre-order it online through Telecom until you finish the purchase. So if anyone has ordered one, please let us know what they say.
At first glance Telecom plans look really good, the minutes and text allowances have increased from the original iPhone 4S plans seen here in Ben’s blog.
These iPhone 5 plans and handset prices are actually exactly the same for an iPhone 4S from Telecom. Surely people wont buy a 4S when the iPhone 5 is the same price on a plan.
Read on to see Telecom and Vodafone iPhone 5 plans
Below is a table from the Telecom website for the 16GB iPhone 5. Prices for the 32GB and 64GB iPhones can be viewed on the Telecom website.
Telecom 16GB iPhone 5 plans.
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Vodafone has also released its iPhone 5 plans. The main difference being that they start at $80 per month.
Vodafone was also open for pre-orders but their website states that they are currently out of stock.
Telecom and Vodafone plans both have strengths and weaknesses, I would recommend thinking about all possible options before signing a 24 month contract.
Vodafone Smart Data plans (24-month term only)
| Monthly cost | $80 | $100 | $120 | $140 | $170 |
| Data | 1GB | 2GB | 2GB | 3GB | 3GB |
| NZ minutes | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 1000 |
| NZ TXTs | 2500 | 2500 | 2500 | 2500 | 2500 |
| Handset discount | $400 | $850 | $1,050 | $1,050 | $1,050 |
For me personally, Telecom is looking pretty good. I am on an old Vodafone $40 plan so when it runs out early next year $80 will probably be too much. Iv got some thinking to do.
Update: iPhone 5 sales will commence at 12.01am Friday at the following Vodafone stores
These Telecom plans look really attractive.
The problem we have now is the cross-subsidies that we have with Vodafone for all our plans (2x ipads + 2x iPhones + naked broadband).
I wonder if Telecom offer package deals…
(Bebe has made 15 comments)
Yeah those plans have improved a little, but I’m still going to buy the 5 outright and go with Telecom’s big prepay deal. It doesn’t make sense to get locked into a 24 month $39 contract to get a measly $120 off the phone, when I can get:
500MB, 60 mins, 5000 txt, all for $19 / month on Prepaid.
http://www.telecom.co.nz/mobile/mobile/plansandpricing/big/
(MattyG has made 24 comments)
Any info on midnight launches with telecom/yoobee/other retailers around the country?
(luke has made 7 comments)
I pre ordered one of these from Telecom for my wife as soon as the page went live last week. Initial email said delivery of 14 to 21 days. However at the weekend I got an email saying it will be ready in my local store for collection on launch day. Very happy with that. As far as I know a few others on Twitter have said the same thing.
To mattyG above, I hope I am wrong but as far as I am aware the iPhone 5 is NOT going to be available to buy outright or on prepay on launch day. Launch day is for new contracts or contract renewals only. This applies to Voda and Telecom. As I say I could be wrong but as far as I know this is the case. If you contact Telecom and I’m wrong please post back here to clarify.
Very disappointing that this is the case from the Telco’s. Pre pay and existing on plan customers who want to purchase outright are pushed aside for new contracts only. I guess they are a business at the end of the day but it would be nice to see some loyalty to existing customers.
I’m sure you’ll be able to buy outright at some but It’s highly doubtful there will be enough stock at launch to satisfy initial demand.
As far as midnight launches go nothing has been announced yet. Traditionally this has been announced at the last minute by NZ telcos in the past.
(Paul has made 337 comments)
@ Paul:
Not true. Last year with the 4S Telecom was advertising the midnight launch party (with Dan Carter in Auckland) from Tuesday, and Vodafone advertising their midnight launch a day later on Wednesday. Only selected stores in NZ had the midnight launch and the rest opened at 9am.
Also Telecom offered the iPhone 4S off-contract (prepaid) for RRP on launch day, as they had HUNDREDS in stock. Vodafone offered off-contract iPhones from 9am Friday morning.
Nothing has been announced as of yet but I’m sure we’ll be seeing some stuff tomorrow or Wednesday.
(Sprok has made 83 comments)
Personally I think the plans are terrible.. the iPhone supports seemless iMessage, meaning the small data and ridiculously huge amount of txts don’t suit an iPhone user at all. I’d like to see some plans that actually reflect how an iPhone is normally used – a reasonable number of minutes and lots of data. 1Gig? I’m currently paying $40/month with Vodafone and have 3gigs. Doesn’t added up for me…
(madadnz has made 1 comment)
@ Sprok:
See below links mate. Telecom will NOT be offering the iPhone 5 on prepay at launch. And the same for voda. Vodafone are saying they will offer it in the future prepaid but can’t confirm when. Telecom are just saying no. If you flick through their respective twitter accounts there is many tweets saying this.
It’s no surprise the 4S was available on prepay at launch, it was only a very minor upgrade to the 4. The 5 being such an upgrade demand is going to be larger, much larger if the queues in Sydney were anything to go by. Telecom and Voda are obviously milking this to their advantage and are only offering it on new contracts aka maximum revenue.
https://twitter.com/TelecomNZ/status/249659469133410304
https://twitter.com/vodafoneNZ/status/249634526475735040
(Paul has made 337 comments)
madadnz wrote:
I couldn’t agree more. Once again the NZ Telco’s are out of touch with what is important to NZ smartphone owners, data. This applies to all smartphones not just the iPhone. The NZ Telco’s try and mask it with ridiculous amounts of texts that you will never use. Prior to Telecom’s new plans you could get 2gb of data for $100. Now you get 1.5gb of data for $109. Yes, that’s less data for more money, and Telecom promote these as new great improved plans! Exactly how is more money less data an improvement?
There is absolutely no plan to accommodate the medium to heavy data user. Anything more than 2gb of data which I see as the ABSOLUTE minimum and Telecom and Vodafone want in excess of $140 per month. Just poor and out of touch from the NZ Telco’s. Telecom have even gone so far as to not allow you to buy 1gb data add ons for $20 each unless your on the $160 per month plan.
Personally I’m way out of contract but I won’t ever re sign until they offer something with a decent amount of data, I’m currently on an old 4gb data plan for $90 with a further 4gb of data on top of that if I want it for $30. That’s $120 for 8gb of data. I’m staying put.
(Paul has made 337 comments)
Yea I also agree. The key idea behind smart phones is to be able to use the net and data on the move. The data limit on smart phone plans should be the focus.
(Henry has made 20 comments)
This year, the phone subsidy is worse than last year. Last year, I pay $150 upfront for a 16gb iPhone 4s with $80/month 2-year contract.
(pacharawit has made 57 comments)
pacharawit wrote:
Again this comes down to the fact the 4S was not a huge upgrade. Demand was not huge so telcos had to shift the units by offering good deals like the one you had.
The iPhone 5 is a whole different beast. Telco’s don’t need to offer any deals to shift it. It will sell itself and then some.
If you are prepared to wait it out better deals will be out in 2 or 3 months, especially with Xmas approaching.
The telco’s are a business trying to make as much money as possible, the early adopters who have to have things straight away (like me) are an easy target. It’s the same the world over, whilst it sucks you can’t blame them, that’s business. You have a choice to wait it out for better deals……but that’s not going to get you an i5 on launch
(Paul has made 337 comments)
Big upgrade or not. Prices should be consistent. Not just price it whatever we feel like. Like they do in America. Either way, very disappointing for NZ customers. If telcos aren’t going to sell handset only, at least Apple should’ve offered pre orders.
(wazza has made 10 comments)
Unlocked directly from online nz apple store for me. As long as I can get hold of a nano sim from telecom without any loopholes i.e.(plans)
(Gen has made 6 comments)
Surely the 2 Degrees plans (including buying the phone outright) look the best out of all 3.
(pknz has made 93 comments)
Looks like I’m going to be chilling outside Vodafone on Thursday night. Hopefully they’ve got good stock levels.
Pretty disappointing about price but I’ll probably just get the contract and then cancel it asap.
Anyone know what sort of price I’d be looking at if I were to cancel the voda $80 per month contract off the bat?
(GC has made 4 comments)
@ GC:
From experience, it will depend how long into the contract you are as to how much the termination fee is. Can’t find anything on the Vodafone website, only to call them.
I have a feeling there is a minimum you must remain on contract too, 6months rings a bell.
(peekay110 has made 3 comments)
GC wrote:
I know with the iPhone 4 this is exactly what I (and a heap others) did…bought on contract from Vodafone, as that was only way to get it, then walked out the door to ring the support desk to cancel it. The total fee worked out to be only $20 more than buying outright so well worth it. This time round the breaking fees are huge and you basically end up paying for the full term anyway.
(camtab has made 480 comments)
Vodafone’s current Termination fees for the Iphone 4S (which I suspect will be same for Iphone 5) are:
“Current full monthly plan price multiplied by months remaining on current term multiplied by (see table below for % to use)”.
On a 24 month term the % is 50% no matter when you cancel so if you cancel straight away you are looking at paying $80 times 23 months times .5 = $920
(camtab has made 480 comments)
Paul wrote:
That’s not the issue.The upgrade from iPhone 3GS to iPhone 4 is definitely bigger than iPhone 4s to iPhon5 but I remember that I bought my 16GB iPhone 4 2 years ago from vodafone for only 629 with 2 year $40 plan. And the retail price of iPhone 4 was even a little bit higher than iPhone 5 which was 1099 for the 16GB one.
(wind1084 has made 11 comments)
I finally got my Telecom online upgrade to work on Saturday afternoon. And I got an email from them a few minutes later telling me I can pick up my iPhone 5 on 28th from my nominated store. So, so far so good. I think I’ll pickup just after opening as not to risk wandering in at 1pm and them saying “we sold it because we thought you didn’t want it!”
(NZ_Guy has made 13 comments)