2degrees delays update on customer numbers
New timeline for second Big Reveal.
New timeline for second Big Reveal.
On February 23 last year, 2degrees delivered its first customer update.
Six months on from its launch, the new carrier said it had 206,000 active customers (active defined as having made a call in the past 30 days), or around 4% of the market - double what most analysts thought it could achieve in a year.
A lot has happened since then, including a 3G upgrade, the introduction of monthly plans, and the the first stories opening in a nationwide chain of 2degrees retailers.
Late last year, when the company promised a February 2011 update, your correspondent was intrigued.
He will have to stay intrigued.
Today, chief executive Eric Hertz told NBR there would be no February update.
The company was now planning an update for late March, or April.
Why the delay?
Essentially, just because.
As a privately-held company (majority owned by Seattle-based Trilogy), 2degrees has to weigh customer interest in its success against the advantage that competitors could gain from a customer update, Mr Hertz said.
Right now, the timing just isn't right.
Publically-held Telecom is due to deliver its December quarter result, including mobile customer numbers, Friday morning. During its September quarter, Telecom lost 19,000 customers as more left its older CDMA network than joined XT.
Vodafone recently revealed its New Zealand operation gained 21,000 mobile customers in its December quarter, reversing recent losses.
Does 2degrees have something to hide?
It doesn't seem likely juding by public number portability statistics, collected by the Telecommunications Carriers Forum, that the number of people who have moved to 2degrees but kept their Telecom or Vodafone number.
At the time of the Feburary 2010 customer update, when 2degrees claimed a total of 206,000 active customers, 53,000 had ported their old phone number to the carrier.
By June, the number of ports had reached 75,000.
By July, that number had grown to 83,000.
And by August it had climed to 92,000.