Should Skinny disclose who their parent is?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Should Skinny disclose who their parent is?

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Kyanar

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#642850 18-Jun-2012 22:04

PaulBrislen: This is one of the reasons TUANZ objects to the Commerce Commission's decision not to do anything about Skinny handset locking - it's Telecom doing it, not some small company with hardly any customers. Yes, Telecom's decided it's only doing it with Skinny for now, but it's still Telecom running the show.

Not to belittle the good stuff you do at TUANZ, but I feel you're barking up the wrong tree here. Telecom is subsidising handsets for Skinny customers, and you are hell-bent on removing their only way to recoup the expense on the customer. I personally feel, and I know many people who also feel, that so long as it's fully up front, and once the subsidy has been recouped unlocking is offered free of charge, that there's nothing wrong with it. The alternative is that they stick an ETF on the prepay plans (lol wut?), eat a loss on customers getting a cheap phone then jumping to 2degrees, or charge full price (which for their target market would be commercial suicide).

sbiddle:
If I was a corporate Telecom or Gen-i customer I'd be wanting answers as to why a 15yr old who has absolutely no brand loyalty and spends literally a few dollars per week gets calling rates of 10c per minute, a rate that is far less than the vast majority of big spending customers are paying.

I work for an organisation with a fair few connections, and we aren't even paying 10c per minute. In fact, we've got unlimited free calling between all our Telecom landlines and cellphones, and Vodafone cellphones. So we're in effect getting calls for free that they're taking a loss on due to MTR (though I'm certain it evens out on the whole).

mattwnz

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#642860 18-Jun-2012 22:19

PaulBrislen: If it was a separate company with nothing more than a shared parent relationship I wouldn't be too worried. But it's not, Skinny is a marketing brand entirely owned by Telecom and run as a stalking horse. It is not a separate company no matter how many times they say it is.

If Skinny is separate let's see them sign up to the Telco Dispute Resolution Service, and to the various other telco agencies that need telco support/engagement. And how about an entry in the Companies Office as a separate company.

It's a marketing brand and that's it.

This is one of the reasons TUANZ objects to the Commerce Commission's decision not to do anything about Skinny handset locking - it's Telecom doing it, not some small company with hardly any customers. Yes, Telecom's decided it's only doing it with Skinny for now, but it's still Telecom running the show.

cheers

Paul

Many companies do this though, including other companies in the technology sector. Many companies have different brands owned by the same parent company , each catering to slightly different markets. Some brands are also run at a loss, while the parent company covers the loss, as a way of preventing competitors signing up to other companies. I think it is all above board. But if telecom was to be pulled up for running a different brand under a parent company, so should other companies. I don't see why telecom are being singled out for it.

nakedmolerat

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#642883 18-Jun-2012 23:37

this is off topic but i would like to reply to P. Brislen

I support locking phone if this meant I can get good deal on the phone and plan

insane

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#642891 19-Jun-2012 00:43

I cringed when I saw the last round of TV adverts, however my Fiance who does marketing for a living correctly pointed out that I wasn't close to the target audience, and that teens would understand that rather squeaky voice-over as also used by 'peaches and cream'.

From a business point of view it's a really good ploy, and if you think about it is no different to to relationships between : Callplus/Slingshot , World Exchange/Xnet , Maxnet/FYX. The no frills version without any SLAs, no added extras and presumably lower touch support means you don't cheapen the stronger parent companies brand.

I still can't stand the adverts, they just grate on me.

MikeB4

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#642904 19-Jun-2012 06:36

They state clearly who they are.

old3eyes

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#642920 19-Jun-2012 08:43

sbiddle: I don't think it matters.

Getting slightly OT but I only give the brand another 12 months before it's absorbed back into Telecom anyway. Smart idea from a marketing move, dumb from a business idea. The niche focus was far too small to help Telecom as it deals with the competition from 2d.

From my experience working for Telecom new venture companies it will last 3 years before it is taken back into the mothership by the bean counters..

Name one other carrier in NZ where you can get 40mins / week for $4 on prepay??

Regards,

Old3eyes

stevenz

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#642942 19-Jun-2012 09:15

Is this akin to Telecom's half-hearted "no, Xtra has nothing to do with us" back when it was initially launched?

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nutbugs

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#642959 19-Jun-2012 09:33

Skinny do state on there website - About Us that they are owned by Telecom
" if we're honest. It's a separate division of Telecom Retail which sells stuff with Skinny on it."

People who care can find out :)

Geese

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#642961 19-Jun-2012 09:34

old3eyes: Name one other carrier in NZ where you can get 40mins ?/ week for $4 on prepay??

It gets even better, 79 minutes a week for the $4 if porting from CDMA (For rest of the year), and lets not forget that from launch up to the end of this month there has been 10,000 minutes FREE calling between Skinny customers (60 mins a week free for 12 months following this).

When buying phones from Skinny online, the phones arrive in Telecom branded courier bags.

oxnsox

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#642998 19-Jun-2012 10:20

nakedmolerat: ...snip...
I support locking phone if this meant I can get good deal on the phone and plan

Are you really thinking this through...
12months down the line a new model phone comes out thats waaaay better. You're locked down
Around the same time plans increase call minutes and triple data caps. You're locked down

If we're going to have phone locking (which I don't support), at least the Skinny model is one where there's just enough subsidy to make the price point appealing, AND they unlock the handset (not to far) downstream, if you remember to ask or slide them some shekels

One of the good things about living in NZ is that carriers don't lock things down (ok so this may have been historically because of carrier incompatibility), but when you travel overseas, as Kiwis do, the ability to pop a local pre-pay sim in your handset is something that you'll never appreciate unless you've previously been tethered to a network locked device.

bazzer

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#643248 19-Jun-2012 15:24

oxnsox:
nakedmolerat: ...snip...
I support locking phone if this meant I can get good deal on the phone and plan

Are you really thinking this through...
12months down the line a new model phone comes out thats waaaay better. You're locked down
Around the same time plans increase call minutes and triple data caps. You're locked down

If we're going to have phone locking (which I don't support), at least the Skinny model is one where there's just enough subsidy to make the price point appealing, AND they unlock the handset (not to far) downstream, if you remember to ask or slide them some shekels

One of the good things about living in NZ is that carriers don't lock things down (ok so this may have been historically because of carrier incompatibility), but when you travel overseas, as Kiwis do, the ability to pop a local pre-pay sim in your handset is something that you'll never appreciate unless you've previously been tethered to a network locked device.

Except there's nothing mandating that you buy a locked/subsidised handset. Either buy one for full price unlocked, or buy a locked one and pay the unlock fee. It only becomes a problem if there is no choice and in a competitive market this shouldn't occur.

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