NZ Mobile Market About to Get Much Bigger
According to the NBR the mobile phone market will have at least three new entrants due to pending legislation relating to number portability.
Essentially the legislation will allow phone users to keep their mobile or home numbers when switching providers. The long standing coupling of the telephone numbers with the service provider has been cited as a key barrier to more competition in the market. With NZ based Orcon, Compass and Australian based M2 Telecommunications Group all signing deals with Vodafone to use its network to provide mobile phone services, the number of providers in the market will essentially double.
There is one remaining question, how will you know whether you are calling a Telecom or Vodafone mobile if the type of number (021 or 027) is no longer a reliable indicator? It's going to make those free minute and TXT messages hard to manage.
Essentially the legislation will allow phone users to keep their mobile or home numbers when switching providers. The long standing coupling of the telephone numbers with the service provider has been cited as a key barrier to more competition in the market. With NZ based Orcon, Compass and Australian based M2 Telecommunications Group all signing deals with Vodafone to use its network to provide mobile phone services, the number of providers in the market will essentially double.
There is one remaining question, how will you know whether you are calling a Telecom or Vodafone mobile if the type of number (021 or 027) is no longer a reliable indicator? It's going to make those free minute and TXT messages hard to manage.
Labels: Number Portability, Telecom, Vodafone
posted by Nicholas Hadlee at
10:33 AM
2 Comments:
Unfortunately tariff transparency is the price that users have to pay for number portability.
There are solutions such as an audible tone when going off-net (calling some-one who is not connected to your service provider) or even a voice message asking if you wish to continue but these have proved to be intrusive and not very successful.
You will have to hope that your friends tell you when they port and likewise for you.
This is only a real problem in countries where the network provider is clearly identified by the prefix. This is not the case in all countries.
I beleive a small price to payfor competition as all prioces should come down.
Interestingly, the following article appeared in the New Zealand Herald, and discusses similar issues raised in this post relating to the cost of calls between service providers.
Another interesting point that has been raised as an additional barrier to changing mobile service providers. Although it is possible to change providers and retain the same phone number the fact that Telecom and Vodaphone operate on different technologies will require a new handset to be purchased. Therefore, it will still be costly to change between the main service providers. Hopefully the competetion in the fixed line servcies will be better serviced by this legislation.
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