One of the challenges of getting basic services in an uncompetitive, small market like NZ is that you have to contend with the proverbial 'carrot and stick' approach to market extortion. i.e. Market participants who put forward meaningless pricing plans with so many **** that you will probably pay double the stated rate. The implication is that you can spend your life investigating 'cheaper deals' which are nothing of the sought. In most countries such 'bait advertising' is disallowed, but because you have a ***, they get away with it, even though the price differentiation point is hardly an incidental pricing qualification, but rather a profoundly necessary cost you will have to bare. All the market players do it. The implication is that no pricing is real until you spend 1 hour investigating it.
In the telecommunications market, there are two dominant market players - Telecom and Vodafone. These two companies are famous for offering no real competition. i.e. They will offer you a 'special' of an extra 20Gb of broadband a month, as if that is of any value. After all, what are you going to do with that if your monthly need is just your contracted amount. They might offer you a teaser of a free wireless modem, even though wireless bandwidth is really expensive, and these little modems can be bought in China for $5. They sell them for $100 plus. 2 degrees is probably the cheapest, but try independent sellers.
You need internet in NZ, and because its rare to get free wifi in NZ, you really want a well-priced wireless solution if you are moving around. The problem is that you are stuck with these two majors. The only alternative is 2 degrees, which is confined to the 3 major cities and Queenstown. That is a very limited choice.
Outside the major cities you also need a landline telephone. You cannot just satisfy yourself with a ADSL connection. Vodafone offers such a plan but its very expensive. So you are stuck paying $110/month for a landline and ADSL for 20Gb, less in the cities because you don't need a telephone line rental.
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