Telecom has responded to a series of announcements from arch rival Vodafone and signed Digital Island as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).
Digital Island has signed a deal with Telecom wholesale and will add mobile services to its existing range of voice and data products, aiming for the local business market.
Digital Island general manager Blair Stewart says the Digital Island deal has been run as a pilot and whatever offering his company gets will be available to other wholesale customers.
What distinguishes an MVNO deal from a simple reseller arrangement is primarily the ability to customise offerings and services.
"It's a genuine MVNO," Stewart says. "This is what you'd call a fully managed version with Telecom delivering all the components. that makes it easier for us to enter the market."
Stewart says Digital Island will be able to build its own plans and more customisation will come "down the track".
It looks as if Telecom is also sticking to its guns over providing wholesale customers with access to its new W-CDMA network as well. Stewart says Digital Island will not be offering that network this year, but expects to be offering it in 2010.
"As soon as it's bedded in, we're first in line," Stewart says.
Digital Island says it now offers a complete range of telecommunications services
“New commercial products like MVNO (mobile virtual network operators) are important additions to the Wholesale product portfolio as they allow our customers, like Digital Island, to develop their own whole-of-business-propositions. We have been discussing mobile with Digital Island for some time now, and I am delighted to be partnering with them for the pilot and test phase of the project," Telecom Wholesale CEO Matt Crockett said.