A furore has broken out in the US over tracking software that allegedly lets telcos track your keystrokes, and movement. NBR surveys Telecom, Vodafone, TelstraClear and 2degrees over their use, or not, of such an app.

Two big telcos have criticisms following the release of the Commerce Commission’s first mobile market monitoring report yesterday.

Two Degrees has warned that some office phone systems and contact database software will not permit their users to dial numbers using its 022 prefix.

Under number portability regulations, customers switching to Two Degrees will have the option to adopt one of the third mobile operator's 022 numbers, or bring their 021 number from Vodafone, or their 027 number from Telecom.

Our putative third mobile operator has resigned from a key industry body, the Telecommunications Carriers Forum (TCF), claiming that Telecom, TelstraClear and Vodafone dominate it for anti-competitive ends.  But there is a glean of more co-operation ahead.

Last month, a senior Two Degrees (formerly NZ Comms) manager mocked the self-regulatory industry body as the “Telecommunications Cartel Forum” during an interview with NBR.

Today, hostilities were formalised, as Two Degrees resigned from the TCF.

Telecom’s XT plans are innovative in some respects, such their single price for on-net and off-net calls. But in pricing, they stay close to Vodafone. Two Degrees' boss says they should be much, much cheaper. So will our third mobile operator go lower? Well, there’s a catch ...

Two Degrees chief executive Mike Reynolds says he’s underwhelmed by Telecom’s XT plans (see tables below) which, in price terms, stick closely to Vodafone; depending on what level of data you consumer, either telco could be cheaper.