2degrees - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

  • 2degrees notches up 75,000 number porters

    The number of 2degrees customers who have brought their existing mobile number with them when joining New Zealand’s newest mobile network has now reached 75,000, the company announced yesterday.

  • Vodafone fault delays text messages

    Text messages have been delayed for several hours after a faulty Vodafone computer server hung on to messages, rather than passing them on.
    Vodafone spokesman Paul Brislen said the problem, which began on Tuesday and affected texts between Vodafone, Telecom and 2degrees, caused a backlog until yesterday morning.
    Vodafone would not say how many texts had been delayed. Mobile phone users send tens of millions of texts every day.
    One irate customer said yesterday that a text message had been delayed nearly six hours.
    2degrees spokeswoman Bryony Hilless said Vodafone notified it of the problem on Tuesday evening and it appeared to be resolved by 4.30am yesterday.
    David Stone, the head of industry body the Telecommunications Carriers Forum, said texting was not as reliable as making a voice call. It was a service that came about accidentally, did not use mobile phone companies' core systems, and it was a case of "buyer beware".
    Brislen said 99 per cent of texts between Vodafone customers were delivered promptly but messages could be held up for a variety of reasons, for example if either the sender or receiver was outside coverage or because of faults.
    Telecom head of messaging Jason Foden said congestion was also possible at busy times such as New Year's Eve. Spokeswoman Rebecca Ingram said 97 per cent of all texts, including those to other networks, were delivered within a minute.
    Brislen said people should not rely on texts in an emergency. "You can't rely on it as an emergency service. It is not rated at that level."
    Telecom mobile users have been quick to provide examples of jumbled text messages after a system glitch was highlighted by The Dominion Post.
    The problem came to light after Salvation Army church leader Steve Molen sent a message to wife Faye that, when received, had a new ending that appeared to disrespect Mrs Molen's mother.
    Other people have now come forward, including Julie Woollett, from Waikato, who said she received corrupted text messages from her daughter on three occasions.
    "The message she sent me had the remnants of another text message she sent to someone else days beforehand and the end of her original text to me was gone."
    Telecom sponsorship and Mobile PR manager Rebecca Ingram said there had been 20 reports of muddled texts in the past few months.
    An investigation is under way to find the cause.

  • 2degrees inks retail deal with Whitcoulls

    2degrees mobile and REDgroup retail, who operate the Whitcoulls and Bennetts stores in New Zealand, have inked a distribution partnership for the sale of 2degrees SIM cards and top-up vouchers from 75 stores nationwide.

  • Telecom 'may not be able to stem exodus'

    As customers flock to rival telecommunications networks, a consumer law specialist says Telecom may not be able to stop a wider exodus from its XT network.
    Both Vodafone and 2degrees have ramped up advertising and reported a surge in new customer interest after Telecom's hyped XT network broke down four times in two months — most recently on Monday.
    A consumer law specialist said Telecom customers were covered under the Consumer Guarantees Act, regardless of personal contracts. If there was a major problem meaning services were not "fit for purpose" and conducted with "reasonable care and skill", customers could cancel their contracts.
    "It's a major problem if a reasonable consumer would not have entered into the contract if they thought this was going to happen.
    "If Telecom had said they were going to advertise the service but it's going to fail every now and then, would we enter?"
    The lawyer said the outages were handing Telecom's competitors customers "on a plate".
    But Telecom spokeswoman Rebecca Earl said the number of customers leaving XT "entirely" was relatively small.
    Those wanting to leave would be assessed and if they had been "significantly impacted" may have the disconnection fee waived, she said.
    2degrees mobile sales and marketing officer Larrie Moore said the company had a 550 per cent increase in sales through its website on Tuesday compared to an average day in February.
    2degrees celebrated its six-month anniversary this month by announcing it had 206,000 customers.
    It had launched an advertising campaign, which went live at 4pm on Tuesday, increasing sales "four-fold" in 24 hours. In that time, almost 3000 people called to ask about "porting", where they changed provider but kept their number.
    Vodafone spokesman Paul Brislen could not provide details of how many customers had switched from Telecom but said the numbers were significant, especially in the South Island, where extra sales support teams were being flown in.
    Businesses were inquiring about joining Vodafone, and, in Wellington, some government departments were discussing switching, he said.
    "For some companies we have been knocking on the door for years. Now they are calling us."
    Consumer New Zealand spokeswoman Maggie Edwards said she had tried investigating yesterday how customers could break their contracts with Telecom but no such advice was available on its website, "which I think is very, very poor".
    The Consumer Guarantees Act did not apply to businesses which had their own contract with Telecom. Each contract tended to have its own limited liability clause.
    "The people it's going to badly affect is small businesses because they don't have the same business clout as large businesses," she said.
    Meanwhile, in Nelson, about 40 on-call hospital staff were reportedly going back to old Telecom phones and pagers due to the XT disruption.
    What is Telecom offering?
    Account customers affected by the outage will get a credit of 33 percent on their monthly plan for the next three months. For example, on a One Rate 100 plan for $49.95 per month, a monthly plan will cost $33.
    For affected pre-paid customers, Telecom will apply a 33 percent bonus every time they top up over the next three months.
    Affected Business On Account SME customers, Gen-i enterprise, and corporate clients will get a 50 percent credit on monthly plan charges for the next three months.

  • 2degrees says mobile 'suffering' will continue without regulation

    Vodafone has welcomed today's recommendation by the Commerce Commission’s that ICT minister Steven Joyce accept undertakings from mobile providers to reduce mobile termination rates.
    However, challenger 2degrees says it is disappointed by the recommendation and consumers will suffer because of it.

  • Should telcos share a 4G mobile network?

    Mobile phone companies and regulators face a stark choice in the next few years: double the number of cellsites to 5000, allow existing cellsites to be built higher, or take the radical step of sanctioning a single mobile access network that would be shared by all.

  • Vodafone, Telecom given last chance to cut mobile rates

    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.

  • Making sense of ComCom's non-publication order

    The Commerce Commission is ordering media outlets not to republish the contents of a story broken by NBR earlier today outlining details of a mobile termination deal between 2 Degrees and Vodafone.

  • Meet the new boss: 2 Degrees' Eric Hertz

    Thirty-two year telecommunications veteran Eric Hertz spent a month cycling with his wife around New Zealand in 1985. He loved it then, he says, and is looking forward to moving here to lead 2 Degrees' mobile launch next month.

  • Huawei cashes in on NZ telco investment

    Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei has boosted its New Zealand revenue by more than 500% as a result of unbundling and mobile network investment.

  • Mobile market: where do we grow from here?

    It was a Stars in their Eyes moment. As this country’s (possibly the world’s) oldest living start-up, NZ Communications launched itself onto the mobile stage this month, showcasing a new name and new executive line-up, I wanted to feel excitement, a sense of anticipation at mobile’s new wave.

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