Vodafone or Telecom or 2 Degrees?

Okay blogged yesterday that I will be replacing my Blackberry with a new smartphone.

A related issue is do I stay with Vodafone. Here's how I am currently connected:

  • Home Internet – Vodafone (through Ihug)
  • Work Internet – Xtreme (they are in my office building, which is handy)
  • Blackberry – Vodafone
  • – Vodafone
  • Mobile Internet – Vodafone (Vodem)

I am a bit exposed having my main four connections (I rarely go into ) all with Vodafone. Hence my thinking has been to swap my Vodem for a T-Stick. This provides me with a backup network when Vodafone is down.

Also when travelling, I have often found Vodafone 3G signals hard to get (and GPRS is next to useless for me). In large parts of Ponsonby and St Marys Bay in I struggle to get Vodafone 3G. Sometimes you get a signal for a bit but somehow it gets overloaded and drops you to GPRS.

Sort of related to that, my Vodafone Blackberry hits a few black spots around Wellington. It always loses a call if driving up the hill to Khandallah. Also loses signal in parts of the CBD sometimes.

I've heard that XT is pretty good since they sorted their problems out – faster and with more coverage.

So should I stay with everything on Vodafone, or go to for some connectivity – and if so, for the phone or for the mobile internet or both?

2 Degrees is a possibility also. They tend to be cheaper, but I am more focused on speed and reliability than price.

What would be great would be a telco that would sell me say 100 GB a month, and allow me to use it over all four devices (laptop, phone, mobile internet stick, ipad). I hate it that I have to buy say an extra $20 of data for my iPad for the last three days of the month, when I have 25 GB unused on my landline etc.

I'm definitely not planning to change my home Internet (have been Ihug since 1996) or iPad (unless there is some bundled package for data across all devices). But I am open to going elsewhere for my smartphone and my mobile internet stick. Views welcome.

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