3 coming to NZ

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › 3 coming to NZ

sbiddle

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Biddle Corp

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#13343 5-May-2007 07:15

From stuff today

(Theresa Gattung)

"She said the decision about the future of Telecom's relationship with H3GA was linked with decisions about mobile technology in New Zealand.

"We really do value that relationship and there is the potential for working together in the future, both in Australia and New Zealand."

Hutchison's spokeswoman said the company was in constructive discussions with Telecom about funding and operating relationships."

Is this the strongest signal yet that Telecom will roll out UMTS and it will be a possible joint partnership and bring the 3 network to NZ? This is something I've been picking for years. I guess the big question is whether Telstra would be involved in any such expansion.

freitasm

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#69577 5-May-2007 09:37

3 would come to New Zealand if Telecom put lots of money in the venture. They are quiet lately, Hutchison even sold some stuff in India - to Vodafone.

It would be interesting to see Telecom creating a network, partner with some foreign company and then decide to sell it to Vodafone... It may happen. Let's see in five years.

mikebray

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#70011 9-May-2007 09:45

Believe me, you don't want 3 in New Zealand !!! We have had them in the UK for a long time and they are absolutely dreadful ! The service they offer is rubbish, the coverage is deadful and the cheap handsets they re-brand are so nasty they barely last 3 months.

I'd stick with vodafone and Telecom if I were you guys !

Just my opinion :-)

Mike

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#70022 9-May-2007 12:11

mikebray: The service they offer is rubbish...

So it wouldn't be much of a change for us then?

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jesseycy

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#70084 10-May-2007 01:18

Here's a more balanced view, having used them in Hong Kong and Australia....

The Good:

1. Cheap.
2. Innovative services (3G Video call to home, mobile browsing with 3 explorer [unlimited], etc)
3. Cheap handsets. Not bad too, try going to www.three.com.au to have a look, so I'll defer my opinion with the fellow forum user above. They stock all the major brands, and give big discounts.

The Bad:

1. Lousy customer service (especially in regards to locking of handsets).
2. Lousy coverage (in australia).

riahon

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#70091 10-May-2007 06:37

mikebray: Believe me, you don't want 3 in New Zealand !!! We have had them in the UK for a long time and they are absolutely dreadful ! The service they offer is rubbish, the coverage is deadful and the cheap handsets they re-brand are so nasty they barely last 3 months.

I'd stick with vodafone and Telecom if I were you guys !

Just my opinion :-)

Mike

People said that about Telstra coming to NZ. My brother in Aus would be disgusted if I ever contemplated changing to them as in his mindset Telstra is evil. Hard for me to understand that sentiment as I have never experienced that with any company (except ~~Subway~~ but I am referring to telecommunications here)

I say bring it on an let the cream float to the top.

mikebray

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#70096 10-May-2007 08:25

Let me respond to the points made by JesseyCy as I am not quite sure why they are good:

1. Cheap - This generally means a false economy and in this case is true.
2. Innovative services (3G Video call to home, mobile browsing with 3 explorer [unlimited], etc) - These services might be innovative but this is not much good when you can't use them because of the coverage and the crap handsets !
3. Cheap handsets. Not bad too, try going to www.three.com.au to have a look, so I'll defer my opinion with the fellow forum user above. They stock all the major brands, and give big discounts. - I take the point here, all major brands are not stocked.

Cheers

Mike

gehenna

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#70100 10-May-2007 09:22

I kind of agree and don't agree with both jesseycy and mikebray...

i used 3 in australia for 2 years, and had 2 handsets during that time.

1. the customer service both in person and on the phone is appalling. noone knew what each other was doing. a perfect example was that I had a Motorola A1000 "smart" phone. The first one I got had problems with coverage / maintaining power. I was sent a replacement and told that a courier would come and pickup the first one. Noone came. In the end I rang both the call center and some retail outlets TEN TIMES!!!! noone came. That phone then went on eBay about 4 months later and made me a tidy $600 bucks....oh and i didn't feel bad about selling the phone because it turned out the whole issue WASN'T a handset problem anyway.

2. the customer service is appalling. oh, did i already say that? hmmm, worth mentioning again i think. I've NEVER EVER experienced such service from any company. Example 2. I bought the A1000 because I was "enticed" into a deal where i got my first 3 months rental and usage FREE. wow, sweet deal i thought, right? except it would seem that the only person who actually knew about this "i give you special deal, you look like nice guy" arrangement was Miss Ramalamadingdong in Bombay. I spent 7 months fighting with them about my first 3 invoices, while reminding them about the 2nd handset they had to pick up, while complaining about the original problem.

3. the handset variety was limited when i was with them. granted i haven't looked at the site lately, and when i joined 3 3g itself was a young technology with not many products available. however they did have nokia and sony ericsson handsets and i guess they're the mainstay in cellphones these days. they had motorola and nec and all that jazz too. in those days the 3g phones were all novelty and crazy design, now that people are over the novelty they just want their normal form factors with the techno stuff included in innovative but familiar designs. imo.

4. in the end it was a phone. i never bothered with video calling or mobile browsing. i leave that to the computerless people who don't have to sit in front of a laptop for 14 hours of the day just to make some $$. it DID work as a phone, it DID send text messages and mms messages. It didn't work everywhere i went in australia, but it did work fine in the cities. It even roamed very well when i came to nz for holidays.

I don't see what telecom can gain from bringing 3 into the country. surely they'd be better to just develop their own infrastructure yet again? 3 have a nice logo though, i guess people like logos.

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bbman

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#70118 10-May-2007 11:48

Hey folks, if 3 comes to NZ it will be in the 850MHZ band, thats the most likely freq and that means it will have the coverage !! Note that TNZ has 1-1.5Bill left from the sale of the Yellow pages so investment is likely

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jesseycy

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#70205 10-May-2007 17:32

Yeah, I did point out that 3 has lousy coverage and customer service...

Haha, maybe that's not strong enough a word? How about horrible?

Granted, yes, they do have horrible coverage and customer service... But hey, they ARE cheap! And services are pretty cool too, you should at least give them some credit on this account...

scotty800i

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#70600 13-May-2007 22:03

i've had the experience using 3G network when they firsted started in AUS. it did however take them quite some time (about 2 years) to build up good network coverage.

their plans were extremely good when first started, however the call rates has gone up a bit since then. like first 10mins free between 3 customers 24/7 (if i remember right, 2000 minuts/month). the handsets are at a reasonable price, and with lots of big companies behind it (like SE, Nokia, Moto). 3 is popular in AUS due to its "CAPPED" plan. the other AUS telecommunication companies are following it as many business using the 3 mobile to make long distance calls.

however, NZ has a much smaller market than AUS and not much of competition. so it might be a big gamble for Telecom to see the return of 3G network. will they introduce the same "CAPPED" plan? BTW, the best part of "CAPPED" plan is that data are included in the plan, so i can check emails and MSN from mobile..... i think that is the essence of 3G (over the GPRS)--- speed of data