2degrees and Orcon Group to merge

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › 2degrees and Orcon Group to merge

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#2841346 1-Jan-2022 12:41

So much for the 2degrees ethos of "fighting for fair" they liked to bang on about.

Hopefully Voyager can stay competitive against these giants.

antonknee

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#2841357 1-Jan-2022 13:01

Interesting to see so many people assuming this is the end of “fighting for fair”. I don’t see it that way at all. This is two challengers merging - it will still be a challenger once the deal is done.

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#2841369 1-Jan-2022 13:15

When you look at 2 Degrees today, there is limited things to can do without needing human intervention eg. Through a store or contact centre. Unless they significantly revamp their online experience it would be commercial suicide to ditch the MMR and retail channels.

Even when you look at Spark and Vodafone for broadband and pay monthly, a lot of their web presence is geared towards signing you up to plans and deferred payment purchases and little else. Sure, there are technically plan change forms but they don’t feel natural and often drop you out to an agent anyway. Digital only works much better for prepaid today.

In theory, digital first could work for these other services (I’ve seen awesome implementations from 2005 in the US and still retain their services to this date) but as long as Telcos keep focusing on narrow journeys in isolation, the best experience is human to human.

This is not a technology problem in the sense of html, css and JavaScript but rather how telcos actually design their processes.

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#2841375 1-Jan-2022 13:35

MaxineN:
cokemaster:

They'll surely drop Spark... much better to keep the $ and use in-house resources than paying an external agency for services that you already provide.

Won't happen overnight but suspect that the MVNO arrangement with Spark won't last 12 months.

True but also if a customer is in an area where there is only spark and not 2degrees. This will not be a good situation to be in. It is a possibility.

The other thing I wonder is that with this acquisition and the amount of cashflow vocus actually has. I wonder if this is not only going to fill in the gaps and build more towers but also I wonder if this is going to accelerate 2d's initial rollout of 5G.

The last thing is that is vocus going to change pricing when they drop spark as an MVNO.

I've got a lot of questions really. This should not have been a surprise considering the older thread about a potential merge but it's still a shock and still huge.

I'll be interested to see what they do here as I shifted my phone from 2D to Orcon for the spark network a few years back. As work (just outside TheTron) doesn't have good 2D signal (as in you must leave the building to make a call), if Orcon drops the spark network I'll probably have to change mobile plan providers and lose the combined mobile/internet discount...

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#2841436 1-Jan-2022 14:03

@eonsim Grab a $1 2d SIM card and check if the coverage has improved

2d has built out coverage over the last 18 months around NZ

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#2841443 1-Jan-2022 14:14

Linux: @eonsim Grab a $1 2d SIM card and check if the coverage has improved

2d has built out coverage over the last 18 months around NZ

@Linux a colleague at work (still with 2D) is still having the same issue as of two weeks ago so, doubtful they've improved it...

And there coverage map still has a little white hole write over the office for both 3/4G, with coverage all around the area. Walk 50m's and everything is fine but makes it a pain to use in the office...

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#2841480 1-Jan-2022 16:49

eonsim: ... And there coverage map still has a little white hole write over the office for both 3/4G, ...

Seems like you are part of the 0.5%, considering that work take up 1/3 of a day. 😅

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

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#2841662 1-Jan-2022 20:40

Really unfortunate in my eyes. The rumors from a few months back were the nail in the coffin after a string of other customer support fails. Voyager please never sell out.

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#2841667 1-Jan-2022 20:53

I was seriously considering a move to 2D after hearing about some good support experiences and NZ based support. Maybe I still will. On the other hand acquisitions can be disruptive.

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#2841688 1-Jan-2022 22:27

quickymart:
ajw:

@cokemaster

Will be interesting to see if they retain the current MVNO deal with warehouse mobile.

If it's generating an income for them, I imagine they would keep it.

I heard rumours Warehouse Mobile had already agreed to move to Vodafone?

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#2841703 2-Jan-2022 01:15

I hope this merger does not delay the release of 2degrees eSIM.

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#2841751 2-Jan-2022 09:57

@Dochart, I doubt it. I expect all major capital-intensive activities (eg. 5G and moving over to Ericsson) to continue. These are critical network improvements and would be required whether merger occurred or not. Deferring these would place 2D at a competitive disadvantage.

Jury would be out for other non-headline activities - eg. Migrating to a single billing invoice for broadband and mobile (if that ever was a thing). These would be subject to prioritisation sessions and conditional on what their post merger plans are (eg. Do they consolidate brands? Which brands do they keep? How important is one bill vs marketing activities).

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#2841810 2-Jan-2022 10:19

Dochart: I hope this merger does not delay the release of 2degrees eSIM.

@Dochart As above would make zero difference

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#2841814 2-Jan-2022 10:51

There is a bit of talk about 2degrees coverage.

- 2degrees and Vodafone now share a large number of rural cell towers (this is not the agreement they had where phones on 2degrees roamed onto the Vodafone tower, there is now 2degrees hardware on these towers).

- Urban coverage from all 3 providers is generally good, however there are black spots that vary from provider to provider.

- 2degrees do have less frequency that the other 2, which is likely one reason they have pushed fixed wireless less than Spark and Vodafone. You might not get the same speeds as Spark / Vodafone. However Spark and Vodafone also have a lot of cell towers on stop sell due to having sold so much fixed wireless in an area, so you may find in these areas actually get better speeds on 2degrees. This will vary from tower to tower, cell to cell, time of day and in the case of holiday hotspots time of the year, it will also depend on the frequency on the tower, what ones the device can support, distance and if the device supports MIMO.

- RCG have rolled out a large number of 'very' rural cell towers, with government funding. Generally were it wasn't economic for any of the 3 providers to build there own either due to build cost or lack of customer demand. These are shared between all 3 providers in most cases (sometimes Spark, Vodafone or 2degrees will also build there own hardware at a site as well - not overly common). In the case of a RCG cell site, everyone is sharing the same radio hardware and there will be minimal difference between the 3 providers.

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#2841815 2-Jan-2022 10:55

@atomeara The shared RAN between 2degrees and VodafoneNZ is called ' MoRAN '

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Operator_Radio_Access_Network

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