Vodafone New Zealand

Vodafone NZ pre-STK (pre-'SIM2') SIM card, circa 2002 compared with 1996 5¢ coin.

Vodafone New Zealand 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.

As of 2005, the company is investing millions of dollars in their new 3G network. Further investments in the 2G network are ongoing to improve capacity in congested urban areas especially. In October 2006, Vodafone bought ihug, New Zealands third largest Internet service provider.

Market share

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 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. It has since been able to compete strongly against Telecom. Vodafone has constantly increased its Market Share and now surpasses Telecom. However, despite having a seemingly huge customer base, the number of active customers is lower due to abandoned pre-paid accounts left by tourists.

A few years ago Vodafone lost some of its market share back to Telecom due to successful marketing campaigns by Telecom and better pricing for their text messaging service. However Vodafone has responded with new plans of their own for text messaging which has seen them recover some market share back from Telecom. Vodafone is also the only network offering Video Calling and other 3G services which has allowed Vodafone to retain some customers depending on these services.

Coverage

Vodafone operates a GSM mobile phone network at 900MHz and 1800MHz frequencies, 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. While the network covers the main centres very well, in many rural areas it currently does not provide the level of coverage its main competitor Telecom provides. The latter company states that its network now reaches "more than 97% of the places where Kiwis live and work".[3]

Vodafone also operates a 3G UMTS network at 2.1GHz that covers the main centres only.

Phone numbers

In New Zealand all mobile phone numbers start with 02. Number portability was introduced to the New Zealand market with effect from 2nd 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).

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, which meant that TelstraClear's 029 prefix is now owned and controlled by Vodafone. Therefore all customers are now billed directly by 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 this choice of technology is the requirements 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 will have to build more sites to provide the same level of coverage as their existing GSM 900MHz network. A UMTS 900 rollout will help to narrow the gap between UMTS and GSM in terms of coverage, however Vodafone has not made public any plans to introduce UMTS at 900MHz.

Building a UMTS network at 2.1GHz is much more expensive than the upgrade path originally chosen by Telecom, with CDMA2000 and EVDO. Telecom however commissioned Alcatel-Lucent in early 2007 to begin rollout of a UMTS network also, with a view to ultimately migrating all CDMA subscribers onto this network. A third carrier, NZ Communications, is also rolling out a UMTS network. With all three carriers using the same network technology, and number portability, the barriers to subscriber churn will be very low. This should result in greatly increased competition in the NZ market.

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] and 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 (main rival)

External links

• Vodafone New Zealand's homepage
• ihug's homepage
• Vodafone's parent
• Telecom New Zealand (Vodafone's competition)

References