Now some pricing and coverage maps from Telecom. Note the call duration discounts, and free minute if your call is dropped. Obviously calls don't drop any longer! I have the entire set of NZ coverage maps if anybody is keen on looking at other areas.

The Sharp Zaurus was clearly the must have toy of the year if you could afford it!

 

I've got a rather extensive collection of mobile pricelists, coverage maps and newsletters from both BellSouth and Telecom from throughout the 90's, and thought it might be interesting to share some of this. First up is some BellSouth Coverage Maps and Pricing from 1996.

 

 

I’ve been a Vodafone Phone Insurance customer now for around 12 years, joining (from memory) not long after they made the service available. In that time I’ve made two claims, one in 2001, and another in 2011, and in both cases found the service great – I lodged claims and within days had a brand new replacement phone. Overall I’ve been happy paying my premium each month for the service they provide.

Earlier this year Vodafone faced some criticism after a Target show criticised their policy of replacing some handsets with refurbished models. In late October a new policy document was sent out to all customers clearly explaining that refurbished handsets may be used as replacement. It now seems that Vodafone have taken things a step further, and on the weekend I received a letter from Vodafone explaining new changes to the Vodafone PhoneInsure policy. If a refurbished phone is sent out as a replacement, a lower excess will apply, and if you’re somebody who tends to lose or destroy phones on a regular basis, higher excess charges apply for a 2nd and 3rd phone claimed on within a year.

Apart from some other minor changes, Vodafone assure us (in bold) that “Everything else stays the same”.

 

 

As a reader of fine print I started reading the included policy document and was shocked to see some other major changes to the policy, changes that Vodafone clearly don’t see as being significant enough to mention in the cover letter where they have told us that “everything else stays the same”

According to the policy document cover is now only provided on a mobile phone that is purchased from Vodafone. This means any phone purchased overseas or from any other network or retailer in NZ will no longer be covered by Vodafone PhoneInsure. Previously the origin of handsets wasn’t an issue, and nowhere in previous policy documents was any reference made to handsets, other than Vodafone refusing to replace imported 1st generation iPhones with newer models.. Both of my historical insurance claims have been on handsets that were not sourced from Vodafone, so quite clearly this has never been an issue in the past.

Vodafone clearly don’t think this is an issue that’s important enough to mention in the cover letter, and clearly don’t think it’s a significant change (“Everything else stays the same”), but I consider this this a significant change to the policy, especially as it could result in people who are presently covered being ineligible to claim after these changes take effect in January.

If you’re a Vodafone PhoneInsure customer and use a handset that was not purchased from Vodafone then you’ll probably want to review your policy. Paying money each month when you’re not going to be covered isn’t a great idea!

In recent weeks 2degrees mobile have upped the ante in the battle over Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs) here in New Zealand. 2degrees have declared war on both Vodafone and Telecom by offering prizes to users in return for soliciting bulk inbound SMS messages on their network - prizes that are funded by 2degrees from MTR revenue, and no doubt leaving them with a tidy profit on the side due to the huge volumes of traffic that the competition is creating.

MTRs have been a controversial issue in New Zealand and 2degrees have been very vocal about their objections to the current charges and the on going Commerce Commission inquiry into MTRs which has now been under way for over five years.

For those who don't understand MTR rates we'll start with a brief rundown. When calls are made between telecommunications networks, money is handed over from one network operator to the other. This charge, known as an interconnection fee (or termination charge) is designed to cover the cost of the network operator delivering the voice call or text message to the end party (or the 'B' party in the telco world). This model is known as Calling Party Pays (CPP), and is used by the vast majority of mobile and fixed line operators in the world to connect calls between networks. An alternative method known as Mobile Party Pays (MPP) is used by mobile operators in some countries such as the USA. Under MPP no interconnection charge exists and no money changes hands, instead the receiving party pays to receive a call or SMS.

MTR rates have become a very hot topic globally in recent years as regulators have tried to force these rates down. Here in New Zealand 2degrees have taken issue with the charges and have been very vocal in the past year, to the point of walking away from the negotiating table and withdrawing all offers after they took issue at the Commerce Commission preferring to accept voluntary undertakings from Vodafone and Telecom in late 2009, rather than forcing price regulation into the marketplace as 2degrees wanted. As of December 2010, yet another investigation is under way, with regulation of MTRs expected to occur in 2011, with pricing to be set by the Commission.

Two weeks ago 2degrees launched a promotion known as "Text Me Race" that exists solely to exploit termination rates, generating both significant revenue for themselves, and to no doubt send a clear message to both Vodafone and Telecom that they believe the current system is flawed. This promotion entices users to receive large numbers of SMS messages from off network mobiles (Vodafone and Telecom customers), and in return offers prizes to the users. In their initial week long promotion held just over a week ago over 700,000 SMS messages were received on the 2degrees network from the top 5 place getters, with over 230,000 messages alone received by the winner. The total number of messages received is unknown, but it's safe to assume that it's significantly higher!

With current SMS termination rates between Telecom and 2degrees of 9.5c + GST, and 6.25c + GST between 2degrees and Vodafone (negotiated as a special deal), this represents revenue to 2degrees of somewhere between $43,750 and $66,500 + GST, depending on the network that the messages originated from, for these top 5 users alone. In return 2degrees gave away 3 PlayStation 3's, a handful of free mobile phones, and $30 airtime credits if you received 1000 inbound SMS messages from another network. 2degrees have discovered a cash cow, and right now they're milking it as fast as they can. Today they have launched a new Xmas promotion, this time offering a LED TV for the top place getter, Xbox Kinect packages, free phones, and free airtime.

This type of business model of exploiting termination rates isn't new. In the late 90's it was exploited by an number of ISP's in New Zealand who offered free dialup internet that was funded by termination charges. This famously lead to the introduction of the 0867 prefix in New Zealand by Telecom New Zealand to manage traffic on their network, however the conspiracy theorists out there still believe the introduction of 0867 was a cunning move to Telecom to shut down the business model. Today the model is also used by 2talk who use the 028 prefix for their fixed line VoIP platform and allow people free forwarding of calls to their mobile phone as well as generating revenue for themselves for every call to an 028 number that is tied to a fixed line service.

One can argue that since the launch of mobile networks that MTRs have represented a legitimate funding source for networks using the CPP model. The question has to be asked however - is what 2degrees doing now ethical? Are they exploiting MTRs for their own gain? Should Vodafone and Telecom continue to deliver messages to the 2degrees network that are nothing other than "solicited spam"? If you're a Vodafone or Telecom user who's sent large amounts of messages do you feel short changed helping a friend to win a low value prize when the real winner is 2degrees?

2degrees are pushing for a Bill and Keep (BAK) pricing model where no money changes hands between operators, and they believe traffic symmetry occurs naturally. They believe "spam" isn't a problem in the SMS world, but that's clear is right now they're encouraging solicited bulk messaging which services no purpose other than delivering them financial gain. To me this is spam, even if it is solicited.

What is clear is that 2degrees have caught both Vodafone and Telecom off guard. The only unanswered question now is how much cash the cash cow will give out before it goes dry. People get dirty hands during wars, and only one side can win.

It's not very often I get annoyed enough to write nasty things about a company, but Vodafone deserve an award right now for running NZ's worst performing mobile network.

There appears to be a major fault that's been affecting the Vodafone network for a number of weeks now and I'm interested in feedback from others who may be experiencing the same issue.

I use data on a daily basis on my Nokia E71. What I've noticed with increased frequency is 3G data retainability issues with data sessions randomly stalling. This becomes obvious when applications such as Gravity (a S60 Twitter app) refuses to update. Once the data session is stalled (but still active according to the phone) you can't send or receive data. The issue also affects voice calling and SMS messages. SMS messages sent while the data session is stalled will sit in the phone outbox and any inbound voice calls will go directly to voicemail. Inbound SMS messages are also not received by the phone

Fixing the fault is very simple. Ending the data session by closing down the application using the data session or manually ending the active data session results in SMS's being sent again and the ability to receive calls and SMS's instantly resuming. If you want a more drastic fix you could just power cycle the phone, but it's certainly not needed, unlike the last time a virtually identical issue existed when GPRS was enabled in the network in 2002 and a power cycle was the only fix.

I've now encountered this issue in various parts of Wellington and also in the Auckland CBD which probably excludes the fault from being  on a single RNC

Totally unscientific studies based around twitter feedback and friends experiencing the exact same issue shows it's not an isolated issue and that I'm not the only person encountering this fault. I suspect however that this issue is totally unrelated to the large number of people complaining about huge delays sending and receiving SMS messages on the Vodafone network.

If you are experiencing any of the above I'd love to hear from you and have created a thread here on Geekzone where the issue can be discussed. Vodafone are seemingly in denial of this issue so it would be interesting to see how many others are experiencing it.

How hard can it be for a telco to provide accurate usage information for customers? That's a question I've been asking myself for the past 3 1/2 years every time I try to check my usage balance on my You Choose plan.

One of my You Choose addons is Your Time 200. This offers my 200 minutes of calling to other Vodafone mobiles between 7pm and 7am weeknights, and all weekend. This addon differs from all other Your Time addons that include calls to any NZ number.

The description sounds clear enough. But that's where the problems start.

Lets say I want to check my remaining balance. A quick TXT with 777 with the word BAL tells me this

"Mthly N/W nat. vf-vf mins:126"

Hmm.. Where did the nat. come from? I was sure my minutes were only on net and didn't include national calls!

How about the 777 IVR? Maybe that's better?

You have.. "126 included included monthly nights and weekends national minutes".

Yip that's right, not only is the world included actually said twice but, but the national word has popped up again. What does that mean? Maybe the Vodafone website could help me. Lets log into the usage meter and check.

 

Landlines? That's a new word. Is that the same as national calls or different yet again?

What I can tell you from being a customer for many years is that the Talk 200 plan only includes calls to Vodafone mobiles. Calls to any other off net mobile or landline phone are charged at normal airtime rates.

After 3 1/2 years of observing this and numerous complaints to Vodafone about this about this I figured it's time to get this off my chest. I know how and why the the problem occurs - the balance system was poorly scoped and is unable to differentiate between the different Your Time addons. At the end of the day however I don't care that you have incompetent staff unable to properly scope and build systems. You are misrepresenting a product  and if you can't be bothered in sorting this maybe you should actually start offering including calls to landlines in this plan so you're not confusing your customers?

How hard can it be? Honestly? I bet it's easier than fixing the continual problems with stalling PDP contexts on your 3G network (but that's a whole new post for a rainy day).

After the launch of Telecom's XT network I blogged about a key difference between the XT and Vodafone networks - the fact that while roaming internationally on the XT network your voicemail works in exactly the same was as it did in new Zealand. On Vodafone NZ it did not.

While Vodafone have offered international roaming since the mid 90's (when BellSouth entered the market) one key feature missing was the ability for a person calling your mobile phone to leave a voicemail message if your phone was turned on (ie it rang) and was not answered. This is a feature known as Late Call Forwarding.

If you had activated call forwarding so that all calls were forwarded to voicemail or had your phone switched off then callers would be able to leave messages. If your phone was switched on and rang, people calling you would either receive a disconnect tone after the specified timeout period, or in some cases received a prerecorded message. If you were roaming on the Vodafone Australia network then this feature was available and callers could leave a message, however anybody who has roamed to Australia would also have noticed that Vodafone billed you the standard $1 per minute roaming charge for voicemail deposits, a charge they loved to hide by not mentioning it anywhere on their website.

As of this week Vodafone NZ have upgraded their network to support Late Call Forwarding on all roaming destinations. Now no matter whether your phone is on of off people calling you will be able to leave you a voicemail message. And best of all you will no longer be charged for voicemail deposits!

Just remember though that standard international call costs still do apply when accessing your voicemail box to listen to messages - they haven't been generous enough to waive these!