[UPDATE: iPad in hand, Orcon boss launches 020 mobile service]Telecom has extended the reach of its XT network a little today, signing so-called mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deals with business specialist Cogent Zintel and newcomer to NZ Telcoin
[UPDATE: iPad in hand, Orcon boss launches 020 mobile service]
Telecom has extended the reach of its XT network a little today, signing so-called mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deals with business specialist Cogent Zintel and newcomer to NZ Telcoinabox, which is targeting small-to-medium enterprises.
The pair join Telecom’s existing MVNO, Digital Island, which also targets the business market.
MVNOs - most famously, Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile in the UK - own no mobile infrastructure. Rather, they sell a rebadged version of an existing phone company’s cellular service. They typically offer the same range of handsets, but slice up their voice and data plans a little differently.
Telcoinabox is expanding into New Zealand from Australia, where it claims to have 50,000 residential and business customers. The company started trading in 2002.
Like Digital Island and Cogent Zintel, it also offers VoIP and fixed line services.
The twist is that Telco in a box offers a “franchising opportunity” for you, or your company, to set yourself up as a telecommunications company - putting your own label on the service it in turn has wholesaled from the likes of Telecom.
$30 million deal
The company’s NZ chief executive, Shannon Fisher, based in Wellington, described the Telecoinabox-Telecom Wholesale XT hookup as a “$30 million deal”, based on expected revenue to the Aussie company over the next three years.
Vodafone has the big ‘uns
Overall, however, Vodafone still has most of the running in the MVNO market.
CallPlus/Slingshot and TelstraClear are both selling rebadged versions of Vodafone’s service, the latter with around 30,000 customers and counting.
A third top-five ISP, Orcon, also has an MVNO deal with Vodafone, although it has yet to set a launch date for its mobile service.
And smaller players Compass Communications and Black+White are also in the Vodafone camp.
Telecom said it is lining up further deals.
