New Telecom Skinny Prepay Brand

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › New Telecom Skinny Prepay Brand

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1932 posts

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#547453 20-Nov-2011 15:06

freitasm:
ajw: I thought this issue was sorted out by the Commerce Commission and it was illegal and anti competitive to lock handsets.

Original discussion on Geekzone from 2008 (and your linked article IIRC was another example of MSM getting stories from Geekzone, but that's not the point now).

Commerce Commission never ruled it "illegal".

I stand corrected.

richms

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#547454 20-Nov-2011 15:08

I have no problem with handset locking if it comes with a substantial subsidy and is advised upfront what the buyout cost is. Hopefully a subsidy and lock would allow telecom to supply some decentish handsets at a price that will get people off CDMA sooner rather than later.

Richard rich.ms

codyc1515

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#547460 20-Nov-2011 15:43

richms: I have no problem with handset locking if it comes with a substantial subsidy and is advised upfront what the buyout cost is. Hopefully a subsidy and lock would allow telecom to supply some decentish handsets at a price that will get people off CDMA sooner rather than later.

The only time that I can see phones being locked as a good thing from all sides is when the user is on prepaid. This is because it would allow the client to get a discounted phone and it would guarantee income for the operator. As for contract clients, this is a bad idea as they would already be locked into a contract to be able to get the discounted price and would have to pay it back if they broke the contract. So IMHO it would be anti-competitive to lock the phone to one network. Thats just like buying a Holden then saying you can only fuel up at Shell, it won't take the other companies petrol.

codyc1515

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#547465 20-Nov-2011 16:10

OK, I've found a nice way to scrape some of the old information out and I have posted it here. Its interesting to say the least:

Porting:

Grab a Skinny SIM card and call 456 from your mobile to activate.
Register online

They had a few interesting headlines, these are:

Weekly Combos
Add-ons
Auto top up
Skinny Dollars (some sort of currency?)
Handset subsidies
Pick your number
Unlock your phone
Return your mobile

To top up overseas, dial *204# and select "Top up"" from the menu. It's free to use the Skinny Mobile Menu from anywhere in the world, or to make it even simpler, set up an auto top up.
Chewing through the data? Get an extra 90MB a week on top of your Weekly Combo for $xx a week.

It’ll auto-renew every week at the same time as your Weekly Combo and the cash will come out of your prepaid balance.
If you don’t buy the Add-on on the day your Plan renews, you’ll only be charged for the remainder of the week. So, if you buy an Add-on the day before your plan renews, for example, you’ll only pay for a day’s worth of data.
To buy this Add-on you’ve just got to be subscribed to a Weekly Combo.
Data is issued pro-rata. You receive and are charged for the proportion of weeks remaining data. For example, if you purchase the day before your plan renews, you get charged for 1/7th of the weekly cost, plus you receive 1/7th of the data.

International roaming

If your phone only works with a Skinny SIM, you won’t be able to just use a foreign SIM while you’re there. Need a refresher on which phones are locked to our network?

INQ Chat

The INQ Chat is awesome ... more copy to go here. It is black and red and goes on the intrawebs and you can talk to your misses.

Phones on offer:

Nokia 8
Nokia 8 C2
Huawei 2800
Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY
Apple iPad
Apple iPhone
(Not sure on the last two but there is links to info about them)

manhinli

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#547476 20-Nov-2011 16:43

Google's cache of the draft Skinny website's slowly fading away, but at the time I did gather a few things, though I didn't take screenshots of them (kicking myself for that). I did post some details of these on my Twitter, but I left it to readers to click on the cache link (which most are now broken).

Here are some other details that people haven't posted yet:

Skinny Dollars and loyalty

They're basically an incentive to stay - with each top up you get a certain amount stored under your account which you can use towards handsets. A maximum of $200 can be gathered at any time.

Skinny will also give customers a handset subsidy if they stay for at least 9 months. Couldn't get any more details on this, but Telecom are really trying hard to have customers stay.
Base rates and recharges

Nothing other than a 39c/min reference. Minimum top up is $5, and they last a year if I remember correctly.

Everything is done weekly, so you do have to keep that in mind when they launch with the $4 weekly add-on combo. My guess is something similar to 1/4 of the TalkTextData value pack you can get currently with Telecom.
Numbers

They're under the 0204 range that Telecom are assigned. People will be able to choose numbers, similar to how they can with 2degrees.

Skinny appears to be a very online-oriented brand as well - a lot of references to self service and "we don't have storefronts" sort of tone.

Find me on Twitter!

I posted 1, 2 x 10^3 times!

richms

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#547495 20-Nov-2011 17:34

codyc1515:
richms: I have no problem with handset locking if it comes with a substantial subsidy and is advised upfront what the buyout cost is. Hopefully a subsidy and lock would allow telecom to supply some decentish handsets at a price that will get people off CDMA sooner rather than later.

The only time that I can see phones being locked as a good thing from all sides is when the user is on prepaid. This is because it would allow the client to get a discounted phone and it would guarantee income for the operator. As for contract clients, this is a bad idea as they would already be locked into a contract to be able to get the discounted price and would have to pay it back if they broke the contract. So IMHO it would be anti-competitive to lock the phone to one network. Thats just like buying a Holden then saying you can only fuel up at Shell, it won't take the other companies petrol.

Locking contract phones would deal to contract defaulters, but as that doesnt even get dealt with here with the IEMI then I dont think its a huge problem like it is in the UK.

Richard rich.ms

codyc1515

1598 posts

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#547511 20-Nov-2011 18:21

richms:
codyc1515:
richms: I have no problem with handset locking if it comes with a substantial subsidy and is advised upfront what the buyout cost is. Hopefully a subsidy and lock would allow telecom to supply some decentish handsets at a price that will get people off CDMA sooner rather than later.

The only time that I can see phones being locked as a good thing from all sides is when the user is on prepaid. This is because it would allow the client to get a discounted phone and it would guarantee income for the operator. As for contract clients, this is a bad idea as they would already be locked into a contract to be able to get the discounted price and would have to pay it back if they broke the contract. So IMHO it would be anti-competitive to lock the phone to one network. Thats just like buying a Holden then saying you can only fuel up at Shell, it won't take the other companies petrol.

Locking contract phones would deal to contract defaulters, but as that doesnt even get dealt with here with the IEMI then I dont think its a huge problem like it is in the UK.

If somebody defaults on the contract then they should still have to pay up, not everybody is going to default on their contract! Why ruin it for the rest of us? If this is allowed to happen the other carriers will more than likely follow suit.

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ajw

1932 posts

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#547522 20-Nov-2011 18:53

Going to be good for the mobile consumer when all the telcoes start scrapping to drag in the punters, especially with the Eurozone on shaky ground. Which means a lot less money in circulation next year and higher unemployment.

codyc1515

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#547549 20-Nov-2011 20:39

I must also comment that the OP has only ever made 4 posts and those 4 posts are on this thread and that the account was created purely to post about this new brand. It almost seems a bit too "coincidental" to me...

richms

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#547550 20-Nov-2011 20:41

codyc1515: I must also comment that the OP has only ever made 4 posts and those 4 posts are on this thread and that the account was created purely to post about this new brand. It almost seems a bit too "coincidental" to me...

Perhaps they are involved with telecom in some other area and dont want their name on discussion about this?

Richard rich.ms

codyc1515

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#547551 20-Nov-2011 20:42

richms:
codyc1515: I must also comment that the OP has only ever made 4 posts and those 4 posts are on this thread and that the account was created purely to post about this new brand. It almost seems a bit too "coincidental" to me...

Perhaps they are involved with telecom in some other area and dont want their name on discussion about this?

Try the marketing department, perhaps?

freitasm

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#547558 20-Nov-2011 20:55

codyc1515: I must also comment that the OP has only ever made 4 posts and those 4 posts are on this thread and that the account was created purely to post about this new brand. It almost seems a bit too "coincidental" to me...

You are late to the party.

Regs

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Snowflake

#547579 20-Nov-2011 21:33

eXDee: tbh i think this locking of handsets is a harmful precedent to start up again in NZ, we've been free from that crap aside from that minor vodafone hiccup.

i hope vodafone and 2degrees throw plenty of crap at them if they do.

i'd prefer they lock handsets and charge $30 to unlock than bring in mobiles specifically manufactured to only run a couple of bands... with no pentaband support, you're getting a permanently locked handset.

I'm sure it probably costs less to manufacture and ship a single handset with pentaband support than to ship several variants, each with different set of documentation

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Regs

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Snowflake

#547580 20-Nov-2011 21:35

richms: I have no problem with handset locking if it comes with a substantial subsidy and is advised upfront what the buyout cost is. Hopefully a subsidy and lock would allow telecom to supply some decentish handsets at a price that will get people off CDMA sooner rather than later.

telecom are currently sending cdma customers a flyer to buy new handsets at discounted rates. some i know has a cdma handset- they've probably not made a call on it for 1 year or more, they can choose from 3 XT handsets starting at $29...

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codyc1515

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#547582 20-Nov-2011 21:36

Regs:
richms: I have no problem with handset locking if it comes with a substantial subsidy and is advised upfront what the buyout cost is. Hopefully a subsidy and lock would allow telecom to supply some decentish handsets at a price that will get people off CDMA sooner rather than later.

telecom are currently sending cdma customers a flyer to buy new handsets at discounted rates. some i know has a cdma handset- they've probably not made a call on it for 1 year or more, they can choose from 3 XT handsets starting at $29...

Those we're on contract prices if I'm not mistaken, if thats the case then the contract is the lock. There is no need to lock the phone.

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