Free Internet on Vodafone - sort of

Until July 27th, Vodafone mobile users can visit several popular Internet sites via their mobile browser, as much as they like, for free. (You do need a 3G phone).

Access to TradeMe, Facebook, Bebo, YouTube or Wikipedia won't cost anything. After July 27th, Vodafone say they are introducing a "casual user day rate" of $1 / day for the first 10MB, then $1 for each additional megabyte that day. That is still expensive, but better than the $10 per megabyte currently charged for casual use.

There doesn't appear to be anything on the Vodafone web site I can link to, but if you go to "Vodafone Live!" on your (Vodafone) mobile, the details are all there. You should also have received a txt message from Vodafone letting you know. I got mine about 30 minutes ago.

Having paid C$32.95 / month last year for unlimited Internet access in Canada from BCE, I've been waiting for the local mobile Internet pricing to sharpen up and it looks like that process is now under way.

Yahoo! (so to speak).

If you need a cheap 3G phone, the Vodafone 715 (Made by Huawei - a big Chinese electronics maker) is now down and dirty at $128 (full price - no contract) at Hill & Stewart in Auckland. It has previously been $149 at DSE and $178 at First Mobile and was priced at $199 back in December. It's a great wee phone with almost all the ells and whistles except voice command and making video calls with the screen on the front and the video camera on the back is problematic. But it's and MP3 player, video player (3gp and 3g2 formats) takes good still photos (1.3mpxl) and can record video and sound. You can buy a optional 512MB ($40) or 1GB SD chip ($60) to keep your songs, pics and vids on.