Vodafone New Zealand is a British owned telecommunications company, a subsidiary of Vodafone Plc operating in New Zealand. It is New Zealand's largest mobile phone operator, based in Auckland. The company was formed in 1998, after Vodafone purchased BellSouth's New Zealand operations. The company employs 1,300 people and has operations in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and has an extensive dealer network across the country.
The company has invested millions of dollars in their 3G network and has continued to maintain its 2G network improving capacity in congested urban areas. In October 2006, Vodafone bought ihug, New Zealands third largest Internet service provider.
Contents |
At the time of purchase in November 1998, BellSouth had 138,000 customers. As of November 8, 2006, the company had about 2.1 million customers and a market share of 55% [1]. The company's main rival is Telecom New Zealand, New Zealand's largest telecommunications company. Telecom had the advantage that they had a 6-year head-start on BellSouth, however this advantage has slipped away in recent years.
After Vodafone took over Bellsouth, they expanded the coverage of the network to compete better with Telecom. Vodafone has constantly increased its market share and now surpasses Telecom in mobile customers. However, despite having a seemingly huge customer base, the number of active customers is lower due to abandoned pre paid accounts left by tourists.
Coverage
Vodafone operates a GSM mobile phone network at 900MHz and 1800MHz and a 3G UMTS 900Mhz network, for which they state that "around 97% of New Zealanders live, work and play" are within coverage".[2]. Customers can also use GPRS, for picture messaging and internet access, anywhere in GSM coverage. The network covers the main centres very well, in many rural areas it outperforms its competitor due to having the old 2G Network to revert back to when 3G coverage is poor.
Vodafone also operates a "fill-in" 3G UMTS network at 2100 MHz that covers the main centres and a 3G Extended Network at 900Mhz.
Phone numbers
In New Zealand all mobile phone numbers start with 02. Number portability was introduced to the New Zealand market with effect from 2 April 2007, as such the following can only be considered indicative. Vodafone has the 021 prefix for their network, with other mobile networks using various other prefixes. Within New Zealand, the network is sometimes referred to in speech by its prefix -- i.e. 'Are you with 021?' instead of 'Are you with Vodafone?'. Generally the convention is 9-digit numbers are allocated to post-paid customers, whereas longer 10- and 11-digit numbers are allocated to pre-paid customers. The idea is to make the post-paid numbers easier to remember, and to allow for a large number-space for pre-paid customers.
The general rules for Vodafone phone numbers are as follows:
- 021 0xx xxxx (10-digit pre-paid)
- 021 02xx xxxx (11-digit pre-paid)
- 021 1xx xxxx (10-digit pre-paid)
- 021 2xx xxxx (10-digit pre-paid)
- 021 3xx xxx (9-digit post-paid)
- 021 4xx xxx (9-digit post-paid)
- 021 5xx xxx (9-digit post-paid)
- 021 6xx xxx (9-digit post-paid)
- 021 7xx xxx (9-digit post-paid)
- 021 8xx xxx (9-digit post-paid)
- 021 9xx xxx (9-digit post-paid)
Assuming all numbers follow the above rule, it can be assumed that there are nearly 3 million possible numbers for pre-paid customers and approximately 700,000 possible numbers for post-paid customers. In total there are approximately 3.7 million possible combinations of phone numbers available to Vodafone, not counting 11-digit combinations (or 4.6 million including the 11-digit combinations). With the current population of New Zealand currently below 4.6 million, this means Vodafone could in theory provide service to the entire country.
029 Prefix
Vodafone used to operate the 029 prefix on behalf of TelstraClear, in addition to their own 021 prefix. TelstraClear customers, mostly corporates, used to be able to get mobile numbers under this prefix. These customers, however, would be billed by TelstraClear instead of being billed directly by Vodafone. In 2007 this agreement lapsed, and in 2008 some of these customers were transitioned to Telecom New Zealand who serviced these initially by CDMA2000 technology. Those TelstraClear 029 customers not transitioned to Telecom New Zealand remained with Vodafone.
Comparison with Telecom 027 Prefix
Telecom New Zealand, Vodafone's main rival, has fixed 10-digit numbers under their 027 prefix which means they have approximately 10 million possible numbers. Telecom originally had mixed 9-digits and 10-digits number using the older 025 prefix, following the same idea Vodafone is currently using. Telecom later introduced a the 027 prefix with fixed 10-digits to simplify the numbering system when they introduced their CDMA network. They have phased out the older 025 prefix since the prefix was attached to their now redundant AMPS and TDMA network.
3G launch
On Wednesday August 10, 2005 Vodafone introduced a brand new 3G network, using the UMTS technology now becoming widespread in Europe. Using this standard, Vodafone now offers video telephony, music downloads, TV downloads including mobisodes (made for mobile phone TV episodes) and much more all from its Vodafone live! portal.
One major disadvantage of rolling out UMTS technology at such an early stage is that Vodafone had to use the 2.1GHz frequency band. The existing 2G network, at 900MHz, use a frequency band which allows greater coverage than the 2.1GHz band allows. Thus Vodafone had to build more sites to provide the same level of coverage as their existing GSM 900MHz network. However Vodafone has since rolled out UMTS coverage at 900MHz. The 3G network (including the recent 900MHz rollout) now covers 97% of population. [3].
Criticism
Vodafone New Zealand has been heavily criticised[1][2] following the announcement of their iPhone plans, which were revealed to be among the most expensive in the world[3][4]
iPhone 3G was launched in the USA on July 11 2008 for a suggested retail price of $US199 for the 8GB model.
In order to receive the device for the "$199 worldwide" promised by Apple, New Zealand users would have to sign up for a 24-month contract at $250 a month.[5][6] Disappointed fans also planned protests outside Vodafone stores in response to the iPhone plans and pricing.[5]
See also
- ihug
- Vodafone
- Vodafone Australia
- TelstraClear (Former main reselling partner)
- Telecom New Zealand (Competitor)
- 2degrees (Competitor)
External links
References
- ^ Your Views: What do you think of Vodafone's iPhone pricing plan?, New Zealand Herald
- ^ Vodafone talks to Campbell Live about the iPhone price, TVNZ
- ^ iPhone 3G pricing announced, New Zealand Herald
- ^ Vodafone defends against iPhone fury, New Zealand Herald
- ^ a b 'Cheap' iPhone has costly catch, New Zealand Herald
- ^ NZ iPhone prices disappoint fans, stuff.co.nz
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
