Traveling to New Zealand and want to use iPhone

[JSANDK]

We are traveling to New Zealand for a month and are trying to find out how best to be able to call back to the US, and within NZ. The ATT international rates are outrageous.

We have Fring on two iPhones that will be in NZ, and one back in the US, but that limits us to wifi connections. Another option, Truphone, also does not seem to allow use for roaming cellular calls, but to wait until you have a wifi connection.

So, how to call within NZ, especially between our 2 phones there? Can we get cheap Vodafone sim cards and use those for calls within NZ?

If I turn off the phone (Airplane mode) can I still access phone voicemail messages and email through web in NZ?

Any other options for cheaper phone usage in NZ?

 

[vinay427]

You can unlock your iPhone (didn't say if it was 3G) using this for free. Then you can get a cheap Vodafone SIM card and use that.

 

[JSANDK]

Yes, it is 3G.

I don't want to have any problems when I come back to my regular ATT service a month later. Will the unlock make it difficult to go back to my ATT sim and service? Can I just take out the ATT simcard and insert another from NZ?

 

[vinay427]

Yes, it is 3G.

I don't want to have any problems when I come back to my regular ATT service a month later. Will the unlock make it difficult to go back to my ATT sim and service? Can I just take out the ATT simcard and insert another from NZ?

Yes. You can just switch both SIM card when needed. When in NZ, just use the Vodafone and use the At&t one when here. One thing is that you will have to be jailbroken to use Yellowsn0w but it works on 2.2.

 

[sergiuria]

Yes. You can just switch both SIM card when needed. When in NZ, just use the Vodafone and use the At&t one when here. One thing is that you will have to be jailbroken to use Yellowsn0w but it works on 2.2.

And then you can restore to factory settings and all trace of jailbreaking will be gone

 

[piace]

The vodafone website in NZ has all the prices for 3G listed. I am a new zealander and I have just purchased an iphone. I asked the same question as yours at Vodafone NZ because I will be in Europe for 2 months and want to swap sim cards. I was told that I would have to register another account through iTunes to make the phone work on another sim in another country but I am not sure if this is correct.
Hopefully someone who is well travelled with their iphone can help both of us!

 

[Theaser]

The vodafone website in NZ has all the prices for 3G listed. I am a new zealander and I have just purchased an iphone. I asked the same question as yours at Vodafone NZ because I will be in Europe for 2 months and want to swap sim cards. I was told that I would have to register another account through iTunes to make the phone work on another sim in another country but I am not sure if this is correct.
Hopefully someone who is well travelled with their iphone can help both of us!

That's bull, just unlock and use the other sim card you will be using in europe. Store and phone reps are so unintelligent when it comes to phones.

 

[Nermal]

You can use an NZ phone overseas simply by putting in a different SIM card. No unlocking or jailbreaking required.

A US phone, on the other hand, will need to be unlocked in order to use an NZ SIM card (which I believe costs $35).

When are you coming?

 

[JSANDK]

I will be there Feb 19 - Mar 25. really looking forward to the visit. Been wanting to visit for 30 years.

I am still hoping for a better alternative to this phone mess. I could pay the ATT extortion prices, but hate to do that.

If I unlock, is it any problem to reinstate it when I get back home?

I'm thinking I might just buy a cheap prepay phone and use that there, and use wifi on the iPhone to collect email, GPS apps, etc. But, still not clear if I can do even that with the iPhone. Can I just turn it off (put in Airplane mode) and still get access through wifi connection? As long as it is on Airplane mode, I shouldn't have any cellular charges, correct?

 

[Nermal]

If you use a prepay SIM and set the APN to www.iphone-vodafone.net.nz then you won't be able to use the data connection (that APN is for iPhone plans only). You could then change the APN to www.vodafone.net.nz if you do need data access at some point (prepay casual rate is $1 for the first 10 MB per day, but it increases considerably after 10 MB).

I believe that an unlock is removed by Restoring the phone in iTunes. Unlocking is certainly the cheapest option as an 8 GB iPhone without contract costs $979 (note that phones sold in NZ are already unlocked and will stay unlocked after restores and updates).

Edit: Misread your post. "Prepay phone" obviously doesn't mean "prepay iPhone"! You can get a cheap GSM phone for $99. Cheapest CDMA is $149 (the CDMA network has better coverage).