Econet, Huawei... Old news, new news?

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freitasm

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Topic # 12608 27-Mar-2007 11:56
Both New Zealand Herald (17 March) and Stuff (27 March) are reporting on a "Econet and Huawei deal" that could see "a third mobile network rolled out in some parts of New Zealand within 18 months.". Is this a new deal? O is this just the companies recycling the news we posted here back in December 2005? Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

juha

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Reply # 65133 27-Mar-2007 12:08
Two figures stand out in the stories: a) 18 months b) $100 million Seeing that Telstra managed to get a WCDMA network going in less than a year, I'm surprised Econet, which has been at it since 2001 from memory, still needs another year and a half. Also, will $100 million really suffice to build a network? I know Huawei gear is meant to be cheap, but that's real bargain basement pricing. Juha

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Reply # 65141 27-Mar-2007 12:45
Boring name change - NZ Communications. Econet was better and sounded almost green. $100m will not get you much of a network really.

portege

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Reply # 65142 27-Mar-2007 12:57
I asked this question about 6 months ago but how does EcoNet make money? They seem to have staff but where do they source the $$$ to finance the salary?

timestyles

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Reply # 65151 27-Mar-2007 13:27
portege: I asked this question about 6 months ago but how does EcoNet make money? They seem to have staff but where do they source the $$$ to finance the salary? I've been following Econet since, well, probably 2002 and I'm disappointed that they still haven't got going. However, their income has come from their main head office in Zimbabwe. There was a time, 2-3 years ago when the news was they had like $30,000 and they were going to run out of money, fortunately that didn't happen. I think that the cellular site equipment manufacturers (Huawei) are funding some of their equipment. Reading the news article (I've got a RSS feed from google news of Econet Zealand and have done so for the last 18 months) they need to provide a service to potentially 1/10th of the population before they can use roaming (ie Vodafone).

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Reply # 65417 29-Mar-2007 10:06
Jama: Boring name change - NZ Communications. Econet was better and sounded almost green. $100m will not get you much of a network really. EcoNet.. Short for Economy Network ;) $100 Million hahahahaha, what are they building it with?? Short Range Cellsites with Cantennas attached??

chiefie

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Reply # 65418 29-Mar-2007 10:12
[troll]I know Zimbabwe and Nigeria are two different area, but are they using the Nigerian's fraud-scheme to make money?[/troll] Internet is my backyard... «Geekzone blog: Tech 'n Chips Takeaway» «Personal blog: And then...» «Photo blog: I see...» Please read the Geekzone's FUG

timestyles

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Reply # 65425 29-Mar-2007 11:02
Jeffthechef: Jama: Boring name change - NZ Communications. Econet was better and sounded almost green. $100m will not get you much of a network really. EcoNet.. Short for Economy Network ;) $100 Million hahahahaha, what are they building it with?? Short Range Cellsites with Cantennas attached?? They only need to provide cellphone connection to 10% of the population. Then Vodafone are legally required to provide them with roaming. The usual figure for a cellular network in NZ is about $600 million, so $100 million looks OK. If they want to save some money, they might want to avoid Christchurch. Because it's flat, there are a lot of cellphone sites. Wellington would be a better choice I think.

BrentR

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Reply # 65426 29-Mar-2007 11:04
chiefie: [troll]I know Zimbabwe and Nigeria are two different area, but are they using the Nigerian's fraud-scheme to make money?[/troll] hahahahahahahahahahah Stop, it hurts!!!!!

Jama

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Reply # 65427 29-Mar-2007 11:13
2 years? they should hold off for 4G

BigFella

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Reply # 65436 29-Mar-2007 12:31
timestyles: They only need to provide cellphone connection to 10% of the population. Then Vodafone are legally required to provide them with roaming. Note that they can't just build 10% and stop - they are required to keep building a network beyond that 10% to take advantage of the roaming on another carriers network.

cranz

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Reply # 65438 29-Mar-2007 13:10
Would be interesting to know what the footprint of their 10-Cell test network covers at the moment in Auckland, I remember seeing an article with Tex pictured next to equipment looking out over the CBD.. would cover quite a percentage here