KEY POINTS:
Telecom has a fancy new website to show you its new roaming charges for when you take your 027 phone or a dual-mode CDMA/GSM handset overseas.
It's a pity that the pricing isn't so flash.
Vodafone is still more competitive, even in markets like Australia where Telecom claims to have the best roaming footprint - it does and will have until Telstra shuts down its CDMA network.
Look at Telecom's pricing: 85c per minute to call within Australia or to call New Zealand.
Vodafone charges whatever you pay per minute on your New Zealand plan - most post-paid subscribers will be doing better than 85c per minute, especially business customers who are likely to be calling head office regulary on business trips across the Tasman.
Prepay customers on the other hand may pay more.
On text messaging, Telecom is no more competitive - 80c to send a text, ouch! Vodafone charges 64c for On Account and 20c for Prepay customers.
It's unfair that Vodafone charges it's loyal account customers more but I think that has to do with the make-up of the company's billing system more than any deliberate discrimination.
In both cases, Vodafone is much more competitive than Telecom.
Let's look at calls from Britain and the United States, two prime destinations for Kiwis doing the LAX shuffle to Heathrow and a bit of travelling in between.
A call back home on your mobile from either country will cost you $3.50 per minute, any time of the day.
On Vodafone it will cost you more during peak hours - $3.90 - but $2.85 during off-peak hours.
For national calls within those two countries, Telecom charges $1.25 per minute, Vodafone charges $1.20 during peak hours, 50c in off-peak hours.
There will be some variations depending on roaming partners and what carriers are available wherever you are overseas, but I was anticipating some better deals from Telecom in general.
The fact is, roaming is still hugely expensive.
Find a landline and use a calling card if you can and save the phone for text messages, but not too many of them.
When it comes to data roaming the options don't appear to have improved.
You can use mobile data in Australia reasonably well, but there's no info on the website about data roaming to all those GSM countries with your Worldmode phone.
If you are a Telecom customer who has been using a Worldmode phone for roaming to countries without CDMA networks, make sure you get rid of the 02 sim in the phone before July 5 or you'll continue to pay even higher prices for roaming.
The local tech blogosphere:
Aardvark
on printer ink scams
Richard MacManus on Digg overtaking Facebook
