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Let's face it, the only reason to watch TV ONE's take on the Mobile market is to keep track of the misinformation that the great unwashed believe about the industry. The new 2 Degrees CEO is top notch, I'm a big fan of his already. He dealt with Mark Sainsbury's dumb questions with no trouble at all. Did you notice where Sainsbury was under the illusion that 2 Degrees coverage is limited? Not at all, in fact their coverage in Auckland is first rate, I'd say second to none.
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Posted: 2009-08-05 13:41:13
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Yeah when he said that about the coverage I was shocked that he obviously hadn't done his research. Really poor stuff from a high profile host. No wonder my TV hardly ever is tuned to TV one.
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Posted: 2009-08-05 15:42:50
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CallPlus has entered the mobile market as a VMNO reselling availability to Vodafone's network and using two brands.

CallPlus Mobile will target business customers while Slingshot Mobile will target residential customers.
CallPlus has about 150,000 customers of its internet services and these people will be offered one of several 'All of business' bundles containing Phone/Broadband/Mobile services. Pricing is set to make life uncomfortable for 2 Degrees (CallPlus has been given the same domestic roaming pricing as 2 Degrees) but will be aimed at the post paid market, not pre-pay.

Another Vodafone VMNO is set to launch soon in the form of Orcon Mobile, also offering 'All of business' deals.

Some see this move as Vodafone way of 'ring fencing' 2 Degrees while retaining its premium brand. Vodafone now gets an income from providing services to B+W, Compass Communications, CallPlus Mobile, Slingshot Mobile, Orcon Mobile, 2 Degrees Mobile and soon TelstraClear when the later shifts it's 30,000 business customers later this year after being (predictably) shafted by XT. Such a strategy may work depending on how aggressive 2 Degress can afford to be.

Expect 2 Degrees 3G data plans and some serious smartphones by mid 2010.

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Posted: 2009-08-17 23:48:48
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Vodafone, Telecom given last chance to cut mobile rates
By TOM PULLAR-STRECKER - The Dominion Post Last updated 05:00 07/09/2009

Vodafone and Telecom have been given less than a month to voluntarily slash the charges they impose on carriers to route calls and texts to mobile phones, before the Commerce Commission recommends the Government does it for them.

Arguments over whether Vodafone should be allowed to make an 11th-hour bid to try to stave off the regulation of mobile termination charges were the meat in the sandwich at a two-day conference in Wellington, organised by the commission to get feedback on its draft recommendation to regulate.

During a sombre session on the closing day of the conference, Vodafone regulatory affairs manager Richard York said the company was keen to resolve the issue, which has vexed regulators and politicians for more than seven years.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. Vodafone said the regulation of mobile termination fees at rates proposed by the commission in a draft report would cut its revenues by $500 million over five years, with "a material impact on our business plans and capacity to invest in New Zealand".

The company wanted more guidance from the commission on the rates that might be set through regulation and the supposed benefits before it made a final offer to cut its charges. But Telecommunications Commissioner Ross Patterson told the company it now had all the information it required to submit "an informed revised" undertaking by October 2.

Fellow commissioner Anita Mazzoleni said it was up to companies to make their own decisions about pricing in the undertakings, but warned the commission would find it difficult to recommend grounds for accepting prices materially different to those they internalised for "on-net" calls. It is understood that implies a big drop.

2degrees chief executive Eric Hertz had earlier argued the commission should not give Vodafone the chance to make another offer. He said it would be an "idle, coercive attempt to influence the politicians and look good in front of the minister at the last minute". Mr Hertz hit out at a warning by Vodafone chief executive Russell Stanners that mobile termination regulation would reduce its ability to invest in fibre-optic broadband infrastructure, saying that amounted to a "backroom bribe".

Telecom has volunteered to halve the fees it charges telephone companies for routing calls and texts to its customers to 7 cents a minute for calls and 3.5c for texts by 2015, in a bid to stave off regulation. Vodafone has not yet improved an offer it made in January to drop its fixed-to-mobile termination charge by 3c to 13c a minute, and to cut both fixed-to-mobile and mobile-to-mobile termination charges to 11c by 2014, with a 7c charge for texts.

The commission said in July that its preliminary view was that call termination charges should be halved from 15c a minute to 7.2c and the price for routing texts slashed from 9.5c to 0.95c.

Telecom industry and regulatory affairs manager John Wesley-Smith upped the pressure on Vodafone and 2degrees to lower their rhetoric. "We want to see Vodafone and 2degrees step up with their own realistic undertakings and we want to see the commission taking a more active role in facilitating that outcome," he said.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Ernie Newman said setting termination charges at cost would get rid of the incentive for the mobile incumbents to charge cheaper prices for calls and texts to customers on their own networks, and higher prices for "off-net" calls and texts.

"That is why so many New Zealanders carry two phones. Imagine if there were excessive termination rates for landline calls. Each of us would have our living-room walls lined with phones so we could call people on different phones depending which network they were on."

Mr Stanners said bundled deals, such as its Best Mates and Text2000 offers, were a feature of other industries.

"McDonald's has value meals and combos. In Hallensteins, socks are cheaper if you buy them three pairs at a time. Six-packs of beer and wine are cheaper than by the bottle, and Microsoft Office is cheaper than buying its components individually. There is nothing anti-competitive about our approach to pricing."
source...

We could see prices drop, or according to Vodafone, we could see investment in technology slow. This will definitely be good for 2 Degrees and any other network who wants to start up here.
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Posted: 2009-09-08 00:45:21
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Sounds like Vodafone threatened that they might leave the NZ market. So be it I reckon, we can live without them. Of course they wouldn't leave though. And some of their excuses are pretty laughable too... You can't compare a mobile network to a food outlet or Microsoft or anything at all. There will always be major points of difference that only apply for the mobile industry.

The slower uptake on new technology thing just sounds like a threat to me. We all know that texts and calls cost Vodafone next to nothing. So they won't be making a loss either way I bet. And if prices are cheaper, then more people will use the services right? So surely they'd actually make more money this way?
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Posted: 2009-09-08 01:35:56
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If the MTR is cut then we may actually see Networks offering the sort of plans they have in the UK with heaps of anytime minutes and stacks of txts. Surely a reduction in MTR is needed to encourage NZers to throw away their landlines and use mobiles for all their calling. With plans like those in the UK, people would have no problem signing up to a 12/18/24 month term. If Vodafone really want to see people shift from Prepay to On Account then they need to make On Account plans the only plan you'll ever need for all your calling; hence a drop in MTR.
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Posted: 2009-09-08 06:03:08
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Telecom has a new log-o!

To me it looks like an imploding star which is quite appropriate considering the year they've had.

Missed releasing XT in November 2008, chooses to forget about a 2G GSM network and only make a W-CDMA network with a June release date.
Failed to install filters on XT, taken to court by Vodafone. XT release initially bought forward then delayed.
Found to be in breach of competition regulations by forcing Wholesale Internet customers to back out of their own equipment or be disadvantaged on price. Potential fine $10m+ .
Releases useless XT ads and laughable branding.
Talks with Apple over supply of iPhone break down.
Releases a pseudo-iPhone plan but is shutdown by Apple when specific-carrier only firmware locks out some features from iPhones on XT.
Announces all its network service technicians will be made redundant and forced to join an Australian contractor as contract employees, taking on all Telecoms business expenses while earing much less. Telecom stands to save 30% on labour costs but claims this is "a great business opportunity for its employees". Cue TUI billboard. Telecoms employees join the dole queue and it's broadband network falls apart, especially in Northland.
Telecom's annual report states CEO's salary rate of $5m + $2m in bonuses while Telecoms profit falls significantly. Network technicians and their Union spit tacks.
New logo and branding released using a similar colour to 2 Degrees Mobile.

Implosion indeed.

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Posted: 2009-10-18 01:13:45
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You don't seem very fond of Telecom. I'd say the log-o (funny we're using a 2degrees term) doesn't look too bad, and they definitely needed a new one. But it definitely isn't great.

To be honest though, I think they would call it a successful year. Their network has received a lot of attention and a lot of people have made the switch to it either from their CDMA 027 or from Vodafone. The ads really were terrible though.
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Posted: 2009-10-18 01:41:17
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The light show on the Auckland waterfront to celebrate XT's new logo is pretty good. It ends tonight at 11:55.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrMAvWirFGA

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Posted: 2009-10-19 21:54:39
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Looks cool but it's pretty lame having their logo all through it. I can't stand art that is ruined by corporate crap like that.
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Posted: 2009-10-20 00:02:08
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