Heya all,

I'm from New Zealand, and I will be going to the UK and Spain during June-July next year. My current itenary has me in Spain during 12th to 23rd July (i.e. 11 days). I'm a customer of Vodafone NZ.

I'm deaf, so I all I will use is SMS. I'll most likely not use Video Calling or GPRS as I will probally leave my 3G phone home and use my old Nokia 8210 (GSM 900/1800) phone instead. I'll most likely make a lot of international SMS -- back home, to the UK and to other kiwis roaming there.

From what I have found on this website and from Vodafone's website, I have concluded that it is, suprisely, cheaper for me to roam instead of getting a local sim card! Even worse, despite being a Vodafone NZ customer -- Vodafone Spain is the most expensive roaming partner!

Prices for SMS between Spain and NZ are as follows:-
- Telecom France/Orange (roam) - NZD $0.50
- Telefornica/Movistar (roam) - NZD $0.60
- Vodafone (roam) - NZD $1.05
- Telefornica/Movistar (local) - NZD $1.15 (EUR 0.60)
- Telecom France/Orange (local) - NZD $1.15 (EUR 0.60)
- Vodafone (local) - NZD $1.15 (EUR 0.60)

This is a bit of a suprise, as generally its cheaper to get a local sim card than it is to roam. Does anyone here know of any good deals, or should I just roam on Orange -- as that seems to be the best deal as well we being the easiest option.

Regards,
James

Hi,
the german "Sunsim" card charges only 25 ct per SMS from spain to NZ.
At the moment it is required that you have a german postal adress to order a card. But as you will travel in a few months maybe they changed the order policy already.
www.sunsim.de

Chris

But 0,25 € are about 0,50 NZD, therefore it wouldn't make much of a difference whether one buys a SunSIM or uses it's normal card.
Besides buying a new SIM costs extra...

There are international cards where texts cost less than 0,20€, however buying them costs about 40€, so it wouldn't be worth it unless you send a lot of texts.

ah i overread the 0,50 NZ$ in the first lines.
Then it doesnt make much sense of course.

Chris

Thanks, seems like I'll have to roam using my Vodafone NZ sim card.

Do let me know if you hear of any changes. :-)

Regards,
James

Report
 

Just a report back to explain my experiences during July 2007 while in Madrid, Spain. As I said before I worked out that it would be cheaper to roam on Vodafone, so I roamed on Vodafone until I got my Vodafone phone stolen in Madrid on my third day there!

Actual roaming costs were as follows:-
- Amena/Orange -- NZD $0.50
- Telefonica -- NZD $0.71
- Vodafone -- NZD $0.71

For some reason Vodafone NZ's website specifies different prices than above, so the above is for the information of any other Vodafone NZ customers roaming in Spain. Note that, strangely, it is cheaper to roam on Amena/Orange than it is to roam on Vodafone's own network. The logic of that I still have not figured out!

When I lost my Vodafone phone, used my other phone instead with an O2 UK sim card. Roaming using that card was fine. I was able to roam on both Telefonica and Vodafone with no problems, but I was barred from roaming on Amena/Orange for some reason. O2's website says that they do have roaming agreements with all three networks. Perhaps Amena/Orange is not available to prepay roamers?

I hope this information is helpful to others.

Regards,
James