Econet, Huawei... Old news, new news?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Econet, Huawei... Old news, new news?

freitasm

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#12608 27-Mar-2007 11:56

Both New Zealand Herald (17 March) and Stuff (27 March) are reporting on a "Econet and Huawei deal" that could see "a third mobile network rolled out in some parts of New Zealand within 18 months.".

Is this a new deal? O is this just the companies recycling the news we posted here back in December 2005?

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juha

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#65133 27-Mar-2007 12:08

Two figures stand out in the stories:

a) 18 months
b) $100 million

Seeing that Telstra managed to get a WCDMA network going in less than a year, I'm surprised Econet, which has been at it since 2001 from memory, still needs another year and a half.

Also, will $100 million really suffice to build a network? I know Huawei gear is meant to be cheap, but that's real bargain basement pricing.

Juha

Jama

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#65141 27-Mar-2007 12:45

Boring name change - NZ Communications.

Econet was better and sounded almost green.

$100m will not get you much of a network really.

portege

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#65142 27-Mar-2007 12:57

I asked this question about 6 months ago but how does EcoNet make money? They seem to have staff but where do they source the $$$ to finance the salary?

timestyles

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#65151 27-Mar-2007 13:27

portege: I asked this question about 6 months ago but how does EcoNet make money? They seem to have staff but where do they source the $$$ to finance the salary?

I've been following Econet since, well, probably 2002 and I'm disappointed that they *still* haven't got going. However, their income has come from their main head office in Zimbabwe. There was a time, 2-3 years ago when the news was they had like $30,000 and they were going to run out of money, fortunately that didn't happen. I think that the cellular site equipment manufacturers (Huawei) are funding some of their equipment.

Reading the news article (I've got a RSS feed from google news of Econet Zealand and have done so for the last 18 months) they need to provide a service to potentially 1/10th of the population before they can use roaming (ie Vodafone).

BrentR

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#65417 29-Mar-2007 10:06

Jama: Boring name change - NZ Communications.

Econet was better and sounded almost green.

$100m will not get you much of a network really.

EcoNet..

Short for Economy Network ;)

$100 Million hahahahaha, what are they building it with?? Short Range Cellsites with Cantennas attached??

chiefie

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#65418 29-Mar-2007 10:12

[troll]I know Zimbabwe and Nigeria are two different area, but are they using the Nigerian's fraud-scheme to make money?[/troll]

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timestyles

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#65425 29-Mar-2007 11:02

Jeffthechef:
Jama: Boring name change - NZ Communications.

Econet was better and sounded almost green.

$100m will not get you much of a network really.

EcoNet..

Short for Economy Network ;)

$100 Million hahahahaha, what are they building it with?? Short Range Cellsites with Cantennas attached??

They only need to provide cellphone connection to 10% of the population. Then Vodafone are legally required to provide them with roaming.

The usual figure for a cellular network in NZ is about $600 million, so $100 million looks OK. If they want to save some money, they might want to avoid Christchurch. Because it's flat, there are a lot of cellphone sites. Wellington would be a better choice I think.

BrentR

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#65426 29-Mar-2007 11:04

chiefie: [troll]I know Zimbabwe and Nigeria are two different area, but are they using the Nigerian's fraud-scheme to make money?[/troll]

hahahahahahahahahahah

Stop, it hurts!!!!!

Jama

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#65427 29-Mar-2007 11:13

2 years? they should hold off for 4G

BigFella

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#65436 29-Mar-2007 12:31

timestyles:
They only need to provide cellphone connection to 10% of the population. Then Vodafone are legally required to provide them with roaming.

Note that they can't just build 10% and stop - they are required to keep building a network beyond that 10% to take advantage of the roaming on another carriers network.

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cranz

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#65438 29-Mar-2007 13:10

Would be interesting to know what the footprint of their 10-Cell test network covers at the moment in Auckland, I remember seeing an article with Tex pictured next to equipment looking out over the CBD.. would cover quite a percentage here