Do you think the Telecom XT brand is damaged, and if so what can Telecom do?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Do you think the Telecom XT brand is damaged, and if so what can Telecom do?

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1285 posts

Uber Geek

#300978 22-Feb-2010 13:17

grant_k:
eXDee: I hear people complaining about coverage as well as the outages all of the time.

I've also heard this from various people around our rural area.

On the old CDMA network, they had reasonable coverage, but on XT, there is nothing, zip, nada.

People like that are never going to migrate to XT.

A little bird told me (chorus tech) that his team aren't going to upgrade to XT because the coverage in the areas they service isn't good on XT but is fine on CDMA.

Telecom have however said in recent releases that they are adding towers so these issues should be sorted soon.

I remember too when Telstra launched their coverage wasn't as good as CDMA in the beginning and the govenment wouldn't let them turn it off until it was.

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Paulthagerous

698 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#300980 22-Feb-2010 13:28

eXDee: I hear plenty of complaints about the R100/R150 phones, not only failing and being faulty, but being just plain terrible.

Never heard of this R150 phone you are talking about, and I also work in a store that sells mobiles.

zonky

62 posts

Master Geek

#300986 22-Feb-2010 13:45

alasta:
The irony is that historically Telecom has always been seen as a middle aged and conservative brand compared with Vodafone

Which is mind-boggling. I can't think of a amore deeply un-cool mobile brand than Vodafone globally. Very mixed messages, sponsor-everything-in-sight approach to marketing- it's like they're desperate....

paradoxsm

3000 posts

Uber Geek

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#300995 22-Feb-2010 13:56

Yes my opinion is that the brand is damaged though it could be repaired with some detailed but concise information of what has been done to fix the network and give it a "robustness and redundancy"

<opinion>

A pricing realignment, not saying "cheaper" pricing but something that represents value, simplicity and transparency such as the old flexi plans on CDMA as the XT plans harken back to the 025 days.
Modern service such as video calling and MMS would then be much more sensibly priced and appealing.

"Extras" on postpaid also need to bill per-use till capped like prepaid.

I moved to prepaid as postpaid was just simply not giving me value as I was paying for a lot I simply wasn't using.

If you are on prepaid:

Add 3 x MyFavourites which will cap all calls but won't charge a cent if you don't call the number assigned.
Get data 500MB, you'll only pay 10c per MB capped at $30 when (IF) you hit 300MB
Get non-stop TXT unless usage is between 30-200 SMS'd a month.

</opinion>

EDIT: Added "opinion" tags

steve98

1386 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#301001 22-Feb-2010 14:04

The brand is damaged *right now* but memories are short and over time people will forget about the outages. Telecom should stick with the XT brand and just keep adding delighters, innovate on pricing, expand the handset range and do whatever it can to secure the iPhone and iPad, as well as at least one decent Android phone.

In the past Telecom have just rebranded products to "repair" damage. For example, Telecom Jetstream became Xtra Jetstream, which became Xtra Broadband, which became Telecom Broadband. This doesn't work and I beg Telecom not to listen to the people who are saying drop the XT brand and rebrand it as Telecom Mobile.

The only cure is to weather the storm and just do everything possible to drive good news stories for the foreseeable future. Vodafone have had rough periods such as when they migrated to their new billing system and the whole 'XT causes intereference' debacle but who remembers those now? It's about standing firm and staying ahead of the game.

ronindanbo

180 posts

Master Geek

#301002 22-Feb-2010 14:10

harrylin: Young people only care about txting, they can't afford to switch carriers and they don't spend much on calls.

Dude you gotta research more before you post these kind of comments, the only truthfull statement here is they dont spend much on calls.

Stats prove they spend heaps on everything else, they buy alot of downloadable content which is where the real money is for telco's. They also churn like crazy, the youth market is driven by pretty shiny things so as soon as there is a sexy new handset available they are off to another carrier to get it.

Telcos in general go for youth NOT business when you talk about cellphone service, why? Business dosent churn unless absolutly necessary and also business does not expand its spend on anything outside the texting and calling products of a cell phone.

Cell phones for business are more an attachment to other services as a package (like corporate internet. PABX services and such).

CB_24

365 posts

Ultimate Geek

#301006 22-Feb-2010 14:23

Wait till it's Vodafone's turn to upgrade their network because they have to! Lets see the dramas they have and everyone thinking XT is the best thing out.

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#301007 22-Feb-2010 14:26

CB_24: Wait till it's Vodafone's turn to upgrade their network because they have to! Lets see the dramas they have and everyone thinking XT is the best thing out.

What the!!

Vodafone have upgraded to WCDMA back in late 2005 and trust me we have had issues

Hammerer

2476 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#301010 22-Feb-2010 14:35

Not a big negative for me a) because I've been her before for many systems; and b) thankfully, I did not have an XT handset.

What happens
1. Big stuff-up gets lot of publicity
2. Damage control means extra focus and resources - techies even get to put in a few more nice to haves that they were not allowed before.
3. Accelerated development brings new advantages to users.

All makes for a stronger system so I am defintely more likely to go with XT now!

ronindanbo

180 posts

Master Geek

#301013 22-Feb-2010 14:49

unfortunately that dosent happen at Telecom...

1/ Big stuff up gets alot of publicity
2/ Telecom dosent know its customers so assumes it can fuddle around and p*ss people off.
3/ Big stuff up gets even more publicity
4/ Telecom execs start running around panicing like chickens at a KFC appreciation society meeting
5/ Middle managers start worrying about there jobs.
6/ The poor buggers at the coal face are yelled at alot and blamed despite telling middle managers that 'hey we are going into this too quickly'
7/ Technicians fix the thing quickly despite telling middle managers that 'hey we are fixing this too quickly'
8/ goto point 1

Taken from the Telecom Big Time development lifecycle process, seems to apply for everything in that company :-)

fab

155 posts

Master Geek

#301020 22-Feb-2010 15:01

I can just see it at Vodafone everytime XT hits the headlines....party time there I am sure!

Is that right, Paul B? :)

Hammerer

2476 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#301033 22-Feb-2010 15:37

ronindanbo: unfortunately that dosent happen at Telecom...

1/ Big stuff up gets alot of publicity
2/ Telecom dosent know its customers so assumes it can fuddle around and p*ss people off.
3/ Big stuff up gets even more publicity
4/ Telecom execs start running around panicing like chickens at a KFC appreciation society meeting
5/ Middle managers start worrying about there jobs.
6/ The poor buggers at the coal face are yelled at alot and blamed despite telling middle managers that 'hey we are going into this too quickly'
7/ Technicians fix the thing quickly despite telling middle managers that 'hey we are fixing this too quickly'
8/ goto point 1

Taken from the Telecom Big Time development lifecycle process, seems to apply for everything in that company :-)

I find such gross generalisations hard to believe. But it is an entertaining thought all those chickens running around.

Admittedly, I haven't dealt with Telecom management in the last 10 years. I had regular working contact with them in the 1990s and they were nowhere near that bad.

ronindanbo

180 posts

Master Geek

#301035 22-Feb-2010 15:39

Hammerer:
ronindanbo: unfortunately that dosent happen at Telecom...

1/ Big stuff up gets alot of publicity
2/ Telecom dosent know its customers so assumes it can fuddle around and p*ss people off.
3/ Big stuff up gets even more publicity
4/ Telecom execs start running around panicing like chickens at a KFC appreciation society meeting
5/ Middle managers start worrying about there jobs.
6/ The poor buggers at the coal face are yelled at alot and blamed despite telling middle managers that 'hey we are going into this too quickly'
7/ Technicians fix the thing quickly despite telling middle managers that 'hey we are fixing this too quickly'
8/ goto point 1

Taken from the Telecom Big Time development lifecycle process, seems to apply for everything in that company :-)

I find such gross generalisations hard to believe.

Admittedly, I haven't dealt with Telecom management in the last 10 years. I had regular working contact with them in the 1990s and they were nowhere near that bad.

Sorry to dissapoint but I worked there until I managed to get a better job 3 years ago.

webwat

2036 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#301043 22-Feb-2010 16:11

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10627659

Apparently Telecom's XT problems are top priority worldwide for Alcatel to fix at the moment, despite bibery prosecution pending by the US government against Alcatel-Lucent. I think Telecom should look for a new technology partner that can migrate Telecom's legacy networks a better than this.

Time to find a new industry!

timmyh

188 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#301056 22-Feb-2010 16:50

Make no mistake this is hurting Telecom and Vodafone will be picking up a lot of customers. When there isn't much between networks something like 'reliability' is absolutely key and the Vodafone sales staff will have been well briefed on how to pitch it.

At my kids school assembly last Friday the Principal made several jokes about the XT outages. So this is getting very mainstream.

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