The founder of New Zealand’s third mobile operator says an off-hand quip has been taken out of hand.

At Telecom’s XT launch, a hot rumour going around the Auckland Town Hall was that Tex Edwards was about to quit 2 Degrees.

Mr Edwards - variously described as “intense”, “quirky”, “charismatic” and “eccentric” - founded the company now known 2 Degrees in the year 2000, drawing on spectrum supplied by the Te Huarahi Tika Trust, and funding provided by Zimbabwe’s Eco-net.

Even as Telecom works on installing filters for its new XT network, tempers continue to run high, with new allegations the telco should have approached Vodafone sooner.

Allies of Vodafone have released papers to NBR that claim Telecom’s network builder, Alcatel-Lucent, delivered the telco a report in November 2008 “making it clear that ‘spurious’ emissions would extend beyond Telecom’s frequencies into neighbouring spectrum licensed to NZ Communications and beyond that into Vodafone’s frequencies”.

This morning, budding third mobile network operator NZ Comms revealed its new name: Two Degrees Mobile Ltd, trading as 2 Degrees. Problem: a central Otago wine maker has been called Two Degrees since 2003.

Letters obtained under the Official Information Act show NZ Communications had a powerful weapon in its April filtering spat with Telecom: a letter from the minister saying the telco needs to incorporate filters into its XT build programme, without delay.

 
NBR graphic by Paul Slater.

Soon-to-launch third mobile network operator NZ Communications tells NBR it has amicably settled a dispute over interference caused by Telecom’s XT network - at least in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

NBR graphic by Paul Slater.