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Vodafone earns a Tui's from Aardvark

Until now, the mobile phones sold by Vodafone in New Zealand have been "unlocked" - which is to say that simply by changing the SIM card, you could use them on any GSM network anywhere in the world.

That's great for people who want to travel without the exorbitant roaming costs that such travel usually produces.

If you're going to (for instance) the UK, just pick up a suitable SIM card from whatever GSM mobile network is offering the best deal and away you go -- paying only local call charges with no roaming overhead.

Indeed, that's exactly what I've always done when I travel abroad and it saves me a bomb!

When I went to the UK I bought a pre-pay SIM on my first day in the country (for 30 quid - about NZ$80) and that gave me full use of my Vodafone NZ mobile for the week or so I was there.

Calls to me from people NZ didn't cost me a bean (unlike when you're roaming) and calls to other UK numbers were less than NZ$0.10 a minute. Marvelous!

But, in an attempt to bring you higher service levels and a better "Vodafone experience", the company is barring that kind of cost-dodging activity.

Yes, as of yesterday, any Vodafone mobile purchased in NZ will be *locked* to the company's network so trying to pop a Virgin or Orange SIM card in it while your travelling around the UK simply won't work.

Unless you're prepared to ante-up with an extra $50 to have them unlocked before you go that is.

According to the "official" Vodafone response to Aardvark's inquiries, "this is being done to protect the customers' experience of the Vodafone brand"

Yeah, right!

It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Telecom is going to be making the switch to GSM at sometime in the fairly recent future doe it?

It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that lots of Kiwis are smart enough to work out that a new SIM card can save them a *bomb* while they're away on business or holiday does it?

No, of course not.

Vodafone go on to tell us that "if a customers takes a Vodafone mobile to another network, the customer won't be able to access the Vodafone experience and services" (oh, can I hold back the tears?).

Shouldn't, the customer, once they've paid a good lump of cash for their phone, be allowed the choice of whether they want to access the "Vodafone experience" or not?

If the experience is so great, why must it be compulsory and not optional?

Now to be fair, I do understand the justification for locking some mobile phones to a network. It's not at all uncommon for mobiles to be heavily discounted when sold in conjunction with a fixed term contract.

A phone that might actually be worth (say) $400 could be sold for as little as a third that price, so long as the customer signs up for a 12 or 24 month contract.

Obviously, to avoid the situation where customers just take the cheap phone, swap out the SIM card and jump to another telco's mobile network - locking the phone is a sensible and acceptable practice.

But what about those phones that are sold at full price? I'm talking about the ones that aren't sold on a contract (PrePaid for example).

To lock these phones and then charge a premium for undoing that lock is nothing but an outright rip-off!

Forget "The Vodafone experience" -- it's a tactic designed to boost the company's bottom line, nothing more.

Maybe Vodafone have done their sums and figured that by locking phones, people will think twice about dodging roaming charges. Maybe they're just afraid that with Telecom building a compatible network they don't want to make it easy for their customers to jump ship.

Whatever the reason, I would expect to see a $50 drop in the price of all Vodafone mobiles if they're going to be locked and expect us to pay $50 to reverse that process - otherwise it's just blatantly anticompetitive and smacks of profiteering.

What do you think?

Is this (along with some of other Vodafone's nasty moves of late) enough to push you across to the dark-side (Telecom)?

Or will you say "stuff Vodafone" and simply buy grey-import phones which are not only cheaper but come without being locked to the network?

In fact, could this be the best thing that's ever happened to the grey market phone business.

Why buy a phone that will cost an extra $50 to unlock when there are deals like this just a few mouse-clicks away?

Are Vodafone cutting off their noses to spite their faces here?

Yet another reason to ditch the regular cellphone and opt for a WiFi phone with Skype instead?

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