I'm surprised no juicy info has leaked to the media

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › I'm surprised no juicy info has leaked to the media

jermsie

302 posts

Ultimate Geek

#31754 29-Mar-2009 16:33

I'm not encouraging it here, but I'm surprised that no big news has been leaked regarding NZComms network and launch. Maybe there's nothing to leak. Telecom has big colourful ads up for T-Day, gearing everyone up, but NZComms? They'd better have something up their sleeves for their sake!

– J

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#204003 29-Mar-2009 16:46

that may be their plan, Not tell anyone anything and get everyone wanting to know more.

jermsie

302 posts

Ultimate Geek

#204004 29-Mar-2009 16:49

boby55: that may be their plan, Not tell anyone anything and get everyone wanting to know more.

Right now hardly anyone has heard that another company is building a competing network.

– J

coffeebaron

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#204029 29-Mar-2009 19:02

You mean you haven't heard the lasted, they've gone bust; again !
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=85&TopicId=31210
And I heard from a friend who heard from a mate who read on the Internet that... ya get the idea :)

I think they have learnt to keep quiet, keep building, and their network will launch when they are good and ready.

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steveonz

151 posts

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#204042 29-Mar-2009 20:32

They are busy getting their sites up, as this form keeps saying.. new sites are popping up everywhere. The past week I have seen about 4 new ones.

Dratsab

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#206529 12-Apr-2009 10:40

jermsie: I'm not encouraging it here, but I'm surprised that no big news has been leaked regarding NZComms network and launch. Maybe there's nothing to leak.

Maybe you've hit the nail on the head. There's an old saying, "time will tell", well it's been almost a decade now...how much time is needed?

You've seen the links provided by steveonz here, and we all acknowledge the total lack of public engagement from NZ Comms. While they are undoudbtedly fighting a huge battle against anti-competitive incumbents, the lack of public engagement is what will hurt them the most.

They will either launch or fold (I'm a rocket scientist

). I'm picking the latter and think there will be three public reactions:
1. The first, and by far the largest, will be "Who are they? - I've never heard of them."
2. A minority will say "the incumbents have successfully prevented competition!"
3. Another minority will say "pack of moaners who screwed up badly on a number of fronts!"

My advice to NZ Communications:
I think it's time for you to put up or shut up. Switch your network on. You have coverage in the three main centres from which you can derive income. A significant amount of users will not roam outside of these areas. Get your own ball rolling (if you're capable - which I'm really starting to doubt) and stop expecting a legislative jump-start. If your towers aren't just for show to justify your salaries, get some use out of them - whinging, whining moaning and complaining and ultimately doing nothing certainly won't win you any customers or friends.

steveonz

151 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#206536 12-Apr-2009 11:45

I could not Agree with you more, However I have noticed that they have constructed a few NEW and large cellsites in Wgtn recently, which have not got their Microwave Dishes on yet. As far as I can tell it?s taking them a while to hook their backhull up. No use switching on in Wgtn yet when their high density areas aren?t even switched on yet.

NZ Comms really didn?t start building out till 18-12 months ago, they have had supplier changes and new investments, I feel they are coming to a launch date in June. This is posed to be a VERY interesting month. Vodafone have already set aside a wad of cash to equal the marketing budget of telecom for their new network.

How is NZ Comms fairing up? I would assume they would try to get in early, else the market will become completely saturated for the next 3-6 months.

So what a May launch date? It?s interesting to say this when telecom has already had their nationwide beta test (with only 70 people) I don?t see NZ Comms having their test for some time...

friendlymonkey

180 posts

Master Geek

#206751 14-Apr-2009 01:28

I see NZ Comms is looking for contact centre staff with applications closing April 17 and employment commencing on May 11. The job description states they will be providing support to NZ Comms customers.

Maybe a sign that they are nearing launch.

http://www.nzcomms.co.nz/wawcs0135837/idDetails=172/Inbound%20Contact%20Centre%20Agent.html

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TinyTim

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#206799 14-Apr-2009 10:59

Dratsab:

My advice to NZ Communications:
I think it's time for you to put up or shut up. Switch your network on. You have coverage in the three main centres from which you can derive income. A significant amount of users will not roam outside of these areas. Get your own ball rolling (if you're capable - which I'm really starting to doubt) and stop expecting a legislative jump-start. If your towers aren't just for show to justify your salaries, get some use out of them - whinging, whining moaning and complaining and ultimately doing nothing certainly won't win you any customers or friends.

This is the strategy that BellSouth NZ unfortunately took when they built their network 15 years ago. For a long time they had the record of being the worst performing second mobile operator of anywhere in the world because they thought we'd be happy with coverage in the main centres only.

steveonz

151 posts

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Inactive user

#206807 14-Apr-2009 11:32

This is just stage one of their Plans,
Stage 1: build out 400 sites in major cities and release product with roaming on Vodafone.
Stage 2: Begin building a further 400 sites throughout NZ. Interesting that Vodafone have around 1300 sites, so NZ Comms may be roaming on Vodafone for some time yet...

TinyTim

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#206826 14-Apr-2009 13:04

True enough, their business plan will be a compromise between cost of roaming onto Vodafone and the cost of delaying launch.

A majority of Vodafone's sites will be infill sites to boost capacity, which NZC won't need (yet).

old3eyes

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#206827 14-Apr-2009 13:04

Here's some info from today's NBR.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/vodafone-hits-mobile-review-with-heavy-duty-legal-threat-100224

"Vodafone hits mobile review with heavy-duty legal threat
Chris Keall | Thursday April 9 2009 - 02:18pm

Putative third mobile operator NZ Communications desperately wants the Commerce Commission to push ahead with an investigation into charges for calls, and texts, that cross between networks. But today the commission revised its timetable, slowing the pace."

Regards,

Old3eyes

timestyles

424 posts

Ultimate Geek

#206906 14-Apr-2009 17:32

One way to guess when NZC will start is to work out the population that is served by existing NZC cellsites. When the population starts to level off, either they've run out of money, or they are satisfied that they have enough cellsites and are ready to go live. It's a lot of work though, sort of a geek equivalent of Trainspotting.

If I were the head of NZ Comms, I'd rent the whole network to virtual cellular providers, and not even bother providing a service to the general population. My reason is this: with equal advertising budgets, if there are n cellular companies, market share will tend towards 1/n for each company. So the most NZComms will achieve is about 33%. However if there are 10 cellular companies, the current 3 on Vodafone (2 current virtual and VF), 1 on Telecoms and 6 on NZC's network, NZC will achieve about 60% of the whole market, about double what it could achieve now. Also, bear in mind that NZC will achieve less than 33% because many customers will not be bothered changing from VF or Telecom.

That said, when NZC actually gets live, I'll go down to the local post office or wherever and buy a connection pack and top it up with $100, just to support them.

ajw

1932 posts

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#206915 14-Apr-2009 18:05

timestyles:

One way to guess when NZC will start is to work out the population that is served by existing NZC cellsites. When the population starts to level off, either they've run out of money, or they are satisfied that they have enough cellsites and are ready to go live. It's a lot of work though, sort of a geek equivalent of Trainspotting.

If I were the head of NZ Comms, I'd rent the whole network to virtual cellular providers, and not even bother providing a service to the general population. My reason is this: with equal advertising budgets, if there are n cellular companies, market share will tend towards 1/n for each company. So the most NZComms will achieve is about 33%. However if there are 10 cellular companies, the current 3 on Vodafone (2 current virtual and VF), 1 on Telecoms and 6 on NZC's network, NZC will achieve about 60% of the whole market, about double what it could achieve now. Also, bear in mind that NZC will achieve less than 33% because many customers will not be bothered changing from VF or Telecom.

That said, when NZC actually gets live, I'll go down to the local post office or wherever and buy a connection pack and top it up with $100, just to support them.

They seem to be well advanced with signing roaming agreements with overseas operators.

http://gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/roa_nzno.shtml

steveonz

151 posts

Master Geek
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#206919 14-Apr-2009 18:17

Excellent! World Domination is on the way!

ajw

1932 posts

Uber Geek

#206938 14-Apr-2009 19:44

steveonz: This is just stage one of their Plans,
Stage 1: build out 400 sites in major cities and release product with roaming on Vodafone.
Stage 2: Begin building a further 400 sites throughout NZ. Interesting that Vodafone have around 1300 sites, so NZ Comms may be roaming on Vodafone for some time yet...

I think you'll find information on their website, they have a contract with Huawei Technologies to supply over 1350 cellsites and enough capacity to service over one million lines.

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