Prepay Broadband in a box from Vodafone NZ

Prepay Broadband in a box from Vodafone NZ

Price: $99

Ongoing Costs: Your choice. Between $10 - $60 a month.

What is it?

Most people by now have come across Vodafone/Telecom Data cards, and more recently the USB varieties, Vodem from Vodafone and T-Stick from Telecom witch all allow wireless broadband access anywhere you can get cell phone reception – with no phone line required. The down side of these services is the expensive 2 year contacts. It was time for change!

Prepay Broadband in a box is Vodafone’s answer to our cries. What if you didn’t want to sign up for two years at $40 - $80 a month? You didn’t get wireless broadband, simple as that!

Just like a prepay cell phone, you load this device up with credit, and then use it. Being a Vodafone product you can top this device up from anywhere that sells top-ups, which is everywhere these days.

What does it cost?

 Being prepay, if you don’t use it – it costs you nothing (unlike its on-contact counterparts) which makes it ideal to have ‘incase’ or for going away ‘sometimes’. However it isn’t limited to only these uses. Someone only doing small amounts of internet browsing and email could use it as their primary internet connection.

Here are the cost options:

BBLite $10 for 100mb (when this is used up, you can add another 100mb for another $10)

BBSURFER $30 for 512mb (when this is used up, you can add another 512mb for another $30)

Or

$1 for 10mb each day (only on the days you use it)

So what’s the best option? It really, like anything, depends on its user. Here are my thoughts:

BBLite is best suited to people such as myself, internet connection at home, and at work. I use this stick mostly for going away and the odd café/airport internet session. With 100/200mb a month you will really only be able to get your emails and surf normal news/Google type websites.

BBSURFER is more aimed at people who may use this as their main internet connection at home. 512/1024mb really is enough for anyone during a normal month with emails, internet and the odd bit of Youtube/videos.

$1 a day is a great deal, this would be perfect for someone who either does not use their computer for internet every day, or would only use this Vodafone USB stick to check emails occasionally. As an idea, 10mb would be enough for most people on any given day, as long as it was normal lite surfing and NOT downloading programs or computer updates, or sending/receiving photos.

So it really depends on how you might use this product as to how much it might cost you each month. However the beauty of this product being on Prepay, is that at the end of your ‘data-month’ you can change to any of the other data options. It really does all happen on a month by month basis, which is perfect as your needs change and you find out how much data you *really* use a month.

The software that comes with this stick also tells you how much of your data you have used, and you can set limits so you don’t go crazy. Vodafone will also alert you as you come near your monthly limit.

Internet Speed

Wireless Broadband has come a long way in the last couple of years, but now 3G is most everywhere (including up Mount Ruapehu as I found out the other day) you will get pretty good speeds in most places. If you have a good fixed line Broadband connection you may find this slightly slower, however it is comparable to a normal fixed line Broadband connection which is great for things that most people want to do.

Final Thoughts

This product is great at doing the job it is meant to do. If you’re a big internet user, it’s not going to replace your fixed line broadband, but at this price, it’s a great add on to keep with your laptop.