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The great New Zealand telecommunications battle |
Muhammad-Oli
Joined: Jun 13, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The NZ of L
PM |
Also, I might add that at my work, we can already sell 2degrees top-ups of $20 and $100 and every $10 increment in between. So it's not just the $20 and $100 as the article implies.
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Muhammad-Oli
Joined: Jun 13, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The NZ of L
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So, 2degrees have announced their prepay pricing with the promise of a focus on plans and things later on. I don't know about you guys but I think they've had long enough to get this stuff sorted already. They should have had a full roll-out.
So it's 9c/text, 44c/min calls and the top-ups are 'magical' in that you get free texts and half-price calling for 30 days after your top-up. That's decent but it doesn't yet rival Vodafone and Telecom's texting deals like TXT2000, $10 Text and the XT deals. All Vodafone needs to do is make a deal for sending texts to all NZ mobiles and they're sorted. Telecom's XT deals are already better.
The mobile phones they revealed are pretty crappy. The list reads Nokia, Nokia, Nokia, Nokia, Nokia (Samsung) Nokia, Nokia. Weak. They need more variety and more brands. Don't hold your breath for Sony Ericsson.
I have more minor problems to do with the ease of use of their website, but those can wait for another time.
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soane28
Joined: Jun 12, 2006
Posts: 401
From: NZ
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 quite poor really, my vodafone contract is better value  hopefully they do abit better than that!
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Muhammad-Oli
Joined: Jun 13, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The NZ of L
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Agreed. Apparently my free sim is arriving tomorrow, so I'll see what their service is like then. Carkitter says it's great though.
Just waiting on better deals and phones I reckon.
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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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Hey, hey, hey, guys lets cut them a break. I think they've got some great pricing, a good website and a fresh attitude which is quite frankly well overdue! 
We must remember that we're in the minority in NZ, having high end phones and using a multitude of features. Many kiwi's will be attracted to 2 Degrees strategy of low price calling, though it may take some time to wean the majority off txting. I like the strategy and think it'll provide a good alternative to CDMA 027 customers faced with paying for a premium XT service when the CDMA plug is pulled (like the 025 plug was pulled some years ago).
The Magic Top-up is reminiscent of the Voda UK plans where you get a decent number of mins and txt for your monthly spend; I like it a lot.
2Degrees data pricing is 50c per MB which is disappointingly high but as long as they get that sorted by October next year when my iPhone plan term expires, I'll finally have a real alternative to Vodafone for the first time in 8 years.
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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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Close up will be discussing the 'War for your mobile bill' tonight at 7 on ONE.
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Muhammad-Oli
Joined: Jun 13, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The NZ of L
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Anything interesting come up? Unfortunately I'm at work til 11pm so I wasn't able to watch it.
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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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Nothing we don't already know.
You'll find the video here.
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Muhammad-Oli
Joined: Jun 13, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The NZ of L
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Thanks carkitter. I'm home now so I can give it a watch.
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Muhammad-Oli
Joined: Jun 13, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The NZ of L
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Watched it last night. Wasn't all that entertaining and didn't offer up anything new.
But maaan, how slow is TVNZ's video player? Took about an hour to load that clip, and I have fairly decent internet speeds!
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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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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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Muhammad-Oli
Joined: Jun 13, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The NZ of L
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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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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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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.
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2009-08-19 00:16 ] |
carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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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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Muhammad-Oli
Joined: Jun 13, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The NZ of L
PM |
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: 2009-08-03 09:05
