Orcon Mobile? Any news or should we just give up on that idea?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Orcon Mobile? Any news or should we just give up on that idea?

Radiotron

179 posts

Master Geek

#25761 31-Aug-2008 23:19

Hi, been a while since any news, is there hope yet, or does it filed under "good idea but nothing happened?"
Duncan, do you anyone or else at Orcon have a comment to make, esp in light of TelstraClear getting some visibility in tonight's TV3 news (but their offer is only open if you have TelstraClear homeline et al)? 10yrs+ of paying for Vodafone thievery, my number was allocated by Bellsouth way back when - moved there from Telecom. Silly me. An update would be appreciated. Cheers, 'tron.
PS, The rest of you 'zoners in telcoland, what is going on with mobile anyway, we are stuck with a nasty duopoly where noone wants to move on price, thoughts?

timestyles

424 posts

Ultimate Geek

#161120 31-Aug-2008 23:37

Orcon would have been a Virtual Mobile Operator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_mobile_operator so you can't expect total competition. It's unlikely that Orcon would give any official word here of any significance, they are more likely to use official public relations methods. Anyway, I'd give up on them. That's the bad news. You can read about when I first read about Orcon going MVNO back 18 months ago here http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=10&TopicId=12556 Anyway, the good news is that a new MVNO is in town, Black and White, http://www.bw.co.nz/. They are about to start beta testing. May they have better luck than Orcon!

By the way, I think that providing localised cellular service is a good idea, forget about roaming, just provide the service for tradespeople, who rarely go out of town using their work cellphones. I think Dunedin would be a good prototype location for such a service because most of the city can be covered using about half a dozen or so cell sites.

Radiotron

179 posts

Master Geek

#161124 31-Aug-2008 23:57

Thanks for informative reply, yes, perhaps things could go in another direction, there could be some real positives relating to localised services. Will watch that space! Meanwhile, lets see what B&W have to offer, have had a look at their page.
Though I do note that local coverage could be challenging on Auckland isthmus, took 3yrs after I moved to Te Atatu before GSM coverage was reliable, how a 3rd party gets on with it could be interesting. While you quote Dunedin as example, there are plenty of us up north that would appreciate a change in the weather relating to mobile carriers.

kfella2000

495 posts

Ultimate Geek

#161130 1-Sep-2008 06:17

Telstraclear are starting a mobile network read here http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=89585&fm=psp,tst which sounds good but at this stage the only people that can get it are their landline and broadband customers.

freitasm

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#161133 1-Sep-2008 06:45

I think manhinli broke the news by posting this to his Geekzone blog a couple of days before any other media. Actually his blog post contains more information than I read in other publications.

jmosen

551 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#161163 1-Sep-2008 09:17

When the Virtual Mobile Operators start to appear, will they come up as their own networks when you ask your phone to scan for available networks?

Jonathan

coffeebaron

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#161185 1-Sep-2008 09:47

jmosen:
When the Virtual Mobile Operators start to appear, will they come up as their own networks when you ask your phone to scan for available networks?

No & Yes; It will see the real network, e.g. Telecom / Vodafone etc: This however is just a network code: 530 02 / 530 01 etc. Therefore a TelstraClear branded phone could load their name against the corresponding network code in the handset database.

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