Third operator poised to start

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

Third mobile network 2degrees will launch a week today, nearly eight years after The Dominion first reported that a new player was poised to challenge incumbents Vodafone and Telecom.

Chief executive Eric Hertz will unveil 2degrees' pricing and services and its handset range next Tuesday, when the first of 50,000 Sim cards that are being given away should start arriving in mail boxes.

The company, established by African telco Econet Wireless but now majority-owned by a United States investor, has spent about $250 million on a 2G and 3G network covering the three main centres. Elsewhere, customers will roam on Vodafone's network.

Web researcher Nielsen Online said it had seen a vast increase in the comments about mobile phone services on blogs and forums since early last year when it became clear 2degrees would enter the market.

'People seem to be waiting to see what 2degrees has to offer, and predicting that it could threaten Telecom and Vodafone on price,' research director Tony Boyte said.

Meanwhile, Telecom Wholesale and 2degrees announced that 2degrees would withdraw an application it had made to the Commerce Commission for a ruling allowing its customers to receive calls on their mobiles as if they were home phones, even when they were away from home.

2degrees plans to give customers the option of having a local number in addition to a mobile number for their phone. It wanted people to be able to call its mobiles from landlines for free, so long as they were registered to the same local calling area. 2degrees would charge its customers for the service.

In a further sign competition in the $2.2b mobile market may be about to heat up, Vodafone announced what it claimed was New Zealand's cheapest mobile-only plan, costing $18.95 a month.

It provides 20 minutes of peak and 60 minutes of off-peak calling and 40 text messages a month.