Can my mobile work in New Zealand?

[neonplanet40]

Hi guys I have an old phone lying about - The SE W350i. Would this work in New Zealand?

Im not sure what I need to check to see if it would or not but maybe someone here knows!

The specs are as follows

Brand / Type
Brand Sony Ericsson
Type W350i
Form factor Slide
Color Black, Blue, Brown, White
Network
Phone Network EDGE, GPRS, GSM, HSCSD
Service 900, 1800, 1900
Connectivity
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared No
Wi-Fi (WLAN) No
USB 2.0
Fax / Data No
Display
Main display Color TFT
Color display 262.144 colors
Dimensions N/A
Resolution 128x160 pixels
External display No
Memory
Internal memory 14MB
External memory 2GB
Memory slots 1
Storage types MemoryStick Micro
Basic
Battery Lithium Ion
Standby time 300 hours
Talk time 7 hours
Calling
Vibrate alert Yes
Photo ID N/A
Ringtones MP3, Polyfone
Camera
Camera Yes
Megapixels 1.3 megapixels
Maximum photo resolution 1280x960 pixels
Digital zoom 4x
Optical zoom No
Auto focus No
Flash N/A
Recording video Yes
Second (front) camera No
Messaging
SMS Yes
MMS Yes
T9 text function Yes
E-mail Yes
Internet browsing N/A
Entertainment
FM radio Yes
Java Yes
Audio player AAC, eAAC, MP3
Video player 3GP, MPEG4
Features
Add ringtones Yes
Organiser Calculator, Calendar, Reminders, Currency convertor
Video call No
Other features Built in hands free, Voice dial, Voice memo
Format
Weight 2.8 oz.
Dimensions (H x W x D) 4.1x1.7x0.4 in.

[neonplanet40]

Wait found it! It will work woo. Thanks anyway guys!

[KidChameleon]

I will work but it will cost about £6 a minute. When I went two years ago I used my UK phone at first and somehow used up £14 of credit in a few minutes trying to phone my dad's New Zealand office.

It might be a good idea to buy a really cheap phone and then buy a sim card in New Zealand. That's what I've been doing. Bear in mind a "cheap" phone in New Zealand is about £40 and the equivalent would be under £20 here. [Edit: I just noticed "old" phone in your post. So you should be able to just use a New Zealand sim.]

When are you going? I remember your thread in about April asking about ticket prices and long haul advice. I'm going to Auckland for a couple of weeks this evening. We have enough airmiles with Air New Zealand now to upgrade to Premium Economy all the way there and back, which is essentially business class, but their Business Class is equivalent to First Class.

[neonplanet40]

I go on Monday mate. Economy class for me and my friend

Booked through lastminute.com (who 'forgot' to mention about stops in Bangkok and Sydney). Cost us £1020 each or so I think. Belfast- Birmingham- Dubai (meant to be straight on to christchurch but now its bangkok-Sydney) - Christchurch. Then from Auckland - (meant to be Dubai but again lastminute.com 'forgot' to tell us about a stop in Sydney, so Sydney) then Dubai - Birmingham - Belfast.

Gonna be a long flight considering me and my mate are about 6ft 5-6inches so hopefully its not too cramped.

Would have loved to go premium mate - we are going with Emirates. But it would have cost about 3-4k each .

We go on monday and back on the 23-24th september cant wait!

How much do texts home cost?

[ajones]

Can it work? Yes.

Will it work? Probably.

Best check your service provider, although I suspect that New Zealand is very roamer friendly! Your provider will also be able to tell you roughly what the call costs will be. Don't forget, that whilst roaming with mobile phones, incoming calls will be expensive too.

[XA04]

I'm off to Australia next week and I'm with Orange. I had to ask Orange to activate my phone for roaming (when I went to Paris last year) and was pretty easy to sort out.

However I'll be using Skype on my netbook to keep in contact this time round, and my phone for emergencies. Calls are about 85p a minute outbound and 70p to receive! There's a package you can pay Orange so that you get cheaper rates but it doesn't really benefit you unless your using your phone a lot... and you probably won't be that much anyway (even with the discounted rates!)

[neonplanet40]

I think o2 payg charge 49p to send a text from New Zealand. Not 100% sure yet but that seems to be the case.

[ajones]

Shame the W350i isn't Symbian (although that's an odd statement to make when you consider "how good" Symbian is...), as the Skype client works great on my Nokia.

[Barakka]

If you're phone is unlocked you can buy a SIM only pre-pay in Australia (XA04) or New Zealand (neonplanet40) and it will work fine.

In Australia I would choose Optus - you will need to show some ID (passport/driving licence) and register the SIM card (to your hotel address ) to get it.

In NZ you just need to pay for it, no ID or anything needed.

IT IS WORTH IT - calling the UK from either of these countries can be very cheap this way, you need to buy International Bolt-Ons - not sure what the AUS one is but just looked and VodafoneNZ is offering 60 mins to the UK for $2 (about 90p) The data bolt ons are also good value if you don't want to get hammered for Internet cafe charges.

I used my unlocked HTC Diamond for voice calls and as a 3G modem for our laptop with much success in both AUS and NZ. Coverage is pretty good, and better in NZ with it being soooo much smaller than AUS, and they have one of the best (and cheapest) 3G networks in the world.

HTH

[KidChameleon]

I go on Monday mate. Economy class for me and my friend

Just to rub it in, I'm currently sitting in the Star Alliance Business Class lounge. It turns out we were upgraded from Premium Economy to Business Class for London to Hong Kong, and we'll be on a waiting list to upgrade again from Hong Kong to Auckland, otherwise we'll be in Premium Economy. Security only took about 5 minutes with the fast track.


When are you going to be in Auckland?

[neonplanet40]

Im going to auckland on the 21st of september I think? maybe the 20th!

Oh and stop rubbing it in not fair! If only I was rich . . . . . or an MP with expenses cover