infonews.co.nz
INDEX
TECHNOLOGY

Mobile Phone Plans Demystified

Friday 16 September 2011, 5:09PM

By Double Black

1236 views

Today’s wide variety of mobile phone plans can seem overwhelming. Different plans’ features such as voice minutes, carry-over, and data usage easily become garbled. Fortunately, choosing a plan is easy when you work backward: Assess your monthly phone needs and then start shopping.

Voice Minutes and Carry-Over

When choosing a phone plan, consider how many voice minutes you’ll need and when you’ll need them. Mobile phone companies offer bundles with two types of voice minutes: peak minutes and off-peak minutes. Peak minutes align with a typical work day. Off-peak minutes begin on weeknights and last throughout the weekend.

It’s a good idea to purchase more minutes than you expect to need; paying for minutes outside of your plan can get expensive. If you expect to have leftover minutes, then choose a mobile phone plan with carry-over. Carry-over saves unused minutes in your account instead of letting them automatically expire each month.

Text Messages

Many plans for mobile phones in New Zealand include text messaging. While incoming messages are free for everyone, some plans may limit your number of outgoing texts per month. To avoid paying high fees for extra texts, you can purchase extra text packages or choose a plan with unlimited texting.

Mobile Data Use

Data plans primarily let you surf the Internet, post status updates, and send email. Data plans may also be important if you’ll be downloading ringtones, downloading games or sending text messages with photo attachments. Kilobytes of data quickly add up and can be costly when not part of a plan.

To avoid overage fees, choose a plan with a bit higher data usage allowance than you expect to need. Starting points for data usage are around 50 MB/month. If you expect to use the Internet every day, then a plan allowing 500 MB of data per month might be best.

Get the most from your mobile! Estimate your needs, add a bit for security, and you’ll have the ideal plan.

Further reading: Cell phone buyers guide