Can I buy a SIM card in New Zealand and put in my Google Pixel 2 while traveling?

[Android Central Question]

Can I buy a SIM card in New Zealand and put in my Google Pixel 2 while traveling? I just got off the phone with Vodafone. This company informed that the USA phone carriers will not allow SIM cards, they had the phone modified to only accept eSIM, which is only used by USA carriers. I do not want to pay Verizon $500 to use the basic services on my phone in New Zealand for 3 weeks. A NZ SIM is only $29. Help!!

 

[klau25]

You should be fine assuming the pixel has the necessary frequency they use there. The phone is unlocked so you can put any sim in there you want. My old nexus 5 worked fine when I used it in France with a local sim couple years ago. Not sure what the rep was taking about regarding esim. Right now the only US carrier that is taking advantage of the esim in the pixel is Google's own project fi unless I'm mistaken. All 4 major carriers require a regular sim card to be used in order to get service.

 

[Rukbat]

The Pixel 2 has an eSIM and can use a nanoSIM. Tell them both to learn something (evidently Vodaphone sales associates "don't know" about as much as Verizon sales associates "don't know" - at least Vodaphone should know that they're putting their regular nanoSIMs into Pixel 2 phones).

Your only choice is going to be which carrier covers the places you need coverage, and who charges what for how much (data, texts, etc.)

 

[paradroid]

If you have Project Fi there is nothing for you to do, it just works.

https://fi.google.com/about/rates/?country=NZ

 

[hallux]

The only US carrier using the eSIM right now is Project Fi, as far as I know. Apparently you can still put in a regular SIM and it'll work but with Project Fi, as @paradroid noted, you can roam overseas.

 

[pseudoware]

Looks like such ignorance isn't limited to US carrier reps. OP, take a look at Spark.

https://www.spark.co.nz

 

[ptkelly]

If you contact Vidafone Australia, I'll bet they can answer all your questions.
https://www.vodafone.com.au/contact

 

[Maljunulo]

I've never been to NZ, but I can't imagine that the answer would be anything but "yes".

I have done this in Bermuda, and everything worked out fine.

 

[BBook1999]

My husband and I both have the Pixel 2. (The US version as we are Americans.) We live in Spain currently and we use digimobil SIM cards. In fact, they are the same SIM cards we used in our previous phones. When we travel outside of Spain, sometimes we switch our cards to either Vodaphone or Orange. We've had no issues. I can't imagine you'll have issues using a prepaid SIM in New Zealand. Enjoy your trip!

 

[AnnDroid]

I spoke to a great Project Fi rep a few weeks ago. I have the Pixel 2 XL. I'm going to use project fi just for a month, our trip is only 11 days to New Zealand. For my purposes, I'm just going to use the phone number that comes on the new eSim, I don't want to port my number. She said that calls and texts would be $0.20 each. Less expensive if you're on Wi-Fi to a landline or if you receive a call from a computer or mobile phone. I didn't write it down I wasn't interested in phone calls.
Two things of importance that she did say, make sure you have International Calling set to On and make sure you have Data Roaming set to On.

 

[y2whisper]

I spoke to a great Project Fi rep a few weeks ago. I have the Pixel 2 XL. I'm going to use project fi just for a month, our trip is only 11 days to New Zealand. For my purposes, I'm just going to use the phone number that comes on the new eSim, I don't want to port my number. She said that calls and texts would be $0.20 each. Less expensive if you're on Wi-Fi to a landline or if you receive a call from a computer or mobile phone. I didn't write it down I wasn't interested in phone calls.
Two things of importance that she did say, make sure you have International Calling set to On and make sure you have Data Roaming set to On.

If it helps when I went to NZ it was that simple picked up a sim card in the airport (you pass a duty free shop with reps ready to set you up. I think it costed me $40 to have local calls and texts along with a ton of data which i used to contact people back home with. this was with the OG Pixel

 

[AnnDroid]

If it helps when I went to NZ it was that simple picked up a sim card in the airport (you pass a duty free shop with reps ready to set you up. I think it costed me $40 to have local calls and texts along with a ton of data which i used to contact people back home with. this was with the OG Pixel

It helps a lot, thanks for the info!