Help orange texts to New Zealand

bargainaddict

Thanks for all your help guys. It turns out there is only coverage for orange where she lives. We got hold of an old nokia for her today and put in a new 02 sim but its obviously no good. Orange are no help, they say the problem is at the New Zealand end, although they continue to take money and giving her the message sent message.
My friend says she is on the telecom network in NZ. There must be a solution out there?

2ax

bargainaddict wrote:

My friend says she is on the telecom network in NZ. There must be a solution out there?

Not necessarily - as S said, there are some compatibility issues. This happens between other GSM and CDMA networks as well.

Maybe you could post them an O2 SIM just to receive the PMs ... it would mean carrying 2 phones though

bargainaddict

2ax do you mean post the 02 simto my friend in NZ. Would it work out there? Would they be able to topup. I really appreciate all your help. My friends Mum is really struggling with not being able to get in touch with her daughter. She managed to phone her on her mobile, so getting through that way works, however mobile to mobile cost her £1 minute!

bargainaddict

karin wrote:

I have no trouble sending/receiving texts between my orange phone and my daughter's NZ mobile.

Do you know what network your daughter is on in new zealand? Maybe my friend could change her network.

2ax

You could send an O2 SIM out there, but don't use it to make calls, just receive texts; it may still be cheaper to send from the NZ one.

If they want to talk on mobiles, the thing to do is get Vodafone Passport and Stop-the-clock.

Get 2 Vodafone SIMs here. Register one for Passport - easy by dialling 2345 or 5555 and following menu options. Send this one to NZ. Register the UK based one for Stop-the-clock.

The UK SIM can now make off-peak calls to landlines and other UK Vodafones that are charged only for the first 3 minutes of calls up to an hour long, so 15 pence at 5p per minute

Passport is a product for cheap roaming calls abroad. For calls up to an hour, there is a flat rate 75p charge and the home tariff operates. In other words received calls free after the 75p, outgoing calls at the normal tariff, which on the Smartplus (default) tariff is 5p/min off-peak, 30p peak to landlines and Vodafone; other networks 35p all the time.

So, the cheapest thing to do is the person in UK phones the other. 15p charge here, 75p charge there, and talk for up to an hour - after that, they charge by the minute, so keep an eye on the clock. If the person in NZ phones, it will cost 75p connect, and 5p/min off-peak, so half-hour would be £2.25.

It is possible to top-up online; or Vodafone accept top-ups from their other networks, or you could keep a top-up card here for the foreign one.

I need to check on the website about the time of off-peak calls; I think it said that it would be the same specified hours in local time, rather than stuck to the UK local time, but I must take another look later ...

**I rang them, and they said it is the time where you are that counts.

There could be a Passport on the NZ SIM, and send one from there to here as well (or instead), but people might get confused with too many phones or swapping SIMs. But I'll look. **edit - I don't think there is, or it's well hidden...

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/

Vodafone UK Passport

Voda UK Stop The Clock

2ax

ps - I hope you have used Martin's Callchecker to find cheap call providers to use for landlines

bargainaddict

Wow, you have gone to so much trouble for me, thanks. It looks like we have come to an end. My friends Mum can only use the orange network because of the coverage where she lives, and my friends text last night and said they cannot use english sims over there so no point sending one over. Thanks again for all your help. Hubby just had an idea and we gonna check out whether she could send internet texts to her daughter, just a thought. Thanks again

2ax

no, I suppose they probably can't use UK sims in that phone, which is CDMA (a different digital phone standard) - I hadn't thought of that, sorry

I think there are other internet sites; maybe someone else knows if there are free ones - or take another look at smsbug and vgsmail, as maybe you can send those from a website as well