NZ Telecommunications

[OLLIE 26]

When will the telecommunications industry in new zealand unbundle and open up for smaller players so that we can stop paying a million times more than anywhere else for phone and internet! for phone and internet that is of shite quality also!

CAN ANYONE HELP ME?

is it possible to convert a gsm phone into a cdma one to be used on the telecom network? the reason is that the pricing plans are much cheaper.

obviously gsm network is better and so are the phones available however with vodafone i'd pay twice as much to get the same thing.

i want to upgrade to a pda the one i want is the imate jam (GSM)

am i pointlessly bitching about a problem that i cannot do anything about?

[martyyn 2]

Im no expert on these matters but I seriously doubt you can convert a GSM phone to CDMA, they are rival technologies.

The simple fact is that Telecom is and always will be a monopoly until the government stops protecting them and opens it up to everyone.

There have been two chances to do that in the last two years and neither has been taken. The simple fact is that at present Telecom is too big and holds too much clout with parliament.

Telecom in general makes bugger all profit with their call plans and broadband rates etc, they make 95% of their profit for doing jack sh!t and thats your line rental.

The only way Telecom are going to make any changes is if everyone dropped them and took their line rental somewhere else.

Anyway, IMO Telecom's phones and CDMA network is a joke, without really knowing what it is you want to do (Ive read some of your recent posts Ollie along these lines but not really paid too much attention) you may well be better off trying Vodafones 3G network.

Telecom is still trying to cling to a mobile techology that the rest of the world dropped 10 years ago. Dont be fooled by the cheap prices, they are cheap for a reason....unless of course all you want a mobile phone for is to make calls

[E30stz 0]

Telescum prepay > Skodafone prepay.

I would have thought telecom make a lot of there profit through selling there internet to other ISP's.

Edited January 4, 2006 by E30stz

[cainchapman 0]

No, CDMA is a technology licenced by Qualcomm and it in no way compatible with GSM. Both developed for totally different applications and have slowly converged.

In general, Telecom has better coverage (by square km), Vodafone has excellent coverage in the main Urban areas.

Currently, possessing 4 cellular phones (don't ask, I only pay for 1). I am relatively happy with Telecom's service coverage. The phones are Crap however.

We have just bought Deb a new 3G phone for Vodafone and it is very good. However, there are problems with making voice calls over the 3G network (it is designed for data/video, not voice). So, you will have voice calls dropped randomly and no problem with Video calling.

Our GSM 3G service is MUCH better than that in Europe (and pretty much anywhere) as we really only have one network for GSM (Vodafone).

Telecom actually make virtually nothing on your home line rental. The make the money in transmission of voice/data calls. More customers, more hassle. The infrastructure required to provide you a home phone line is much less profitable, than that to supply a medium sized business, or to provide a tolls service.

They are scum to their competitors though. They make all new providers lives hell. I remember that they screwed BellSouth around for a year or so, by disconnecting them, from Telecom's atomic clock (phones need synchronisity).

Anyway, I digress. If you travel no further than Australia, then Telecom is wonderful. If you roam the world (anywhere bar Japan, their own Mickey Mouse network), a Vodafone tri-band phone is the ducks guts.

[Jazzbass 1]

They have Vodafone in Japan, too.

I have two sons living there - one on Vodafone, one on some weird Japanese thingo.

We used to live in Korea - they use CDMA too.

My kids have roamed all round the world, Vodafone gets them most places.

We use telecom here, purely because we can lump everything under one bill, including the prepaid (but we don't actually pre pay - weird) cells, plus our 0800 # and phone line etc. Its just a convenience thing. I too think that Vodafone phones are better.

[shadowninja 0]

Nothing will change until such time as Telecom is no longer legislated to provide seriously unprofitable rural phone services. As far as I can see, we are an expensive country to provide telecommunication services for. Low & sparcely populated areas with challenging geographical environment. We need to stop comparing ourselves to countries like USA, Japan etc when it comes to technology and more to the 2nd-3rd world economies.

And hey its not just the government that wants to prop up Telecom... they take up over 25% of the value of our sharemarket too.

[my_e36 43]

Telcommunications industry will never sorts itself out. Government will not step in mainly because Telecom (and Voda) are some of the biggest employer in the country. Also, they ARE the economy (to a certain extent).

Used to work for Telecom Mobile, the technology ain't bad, just don't have enough great phones in the market. They stomp themselve in the foot by having have to Tele-permit every model that goes into the network. Lead time is HUGE, we are buying what essentially a run-out model in the states. (With the exception of the PDA Harrier and Apache)

Voda, well, I don't know where to begin. I have more dropped calls and more failed dail attempts compare to Telecom027. Voice quality not as great and data transmission is not as fast either. (I own mobile data-cards on both networks) However, there are more phones to choose from (namely imported ones) but there're no regulation (or impossible to) to gaurantee its compatibility with the Vodafone's service. (Perfect example, Sony Ericsson V800, all the not-black colour variants cannot do Vodafone Live video downloads!)

For those who don't know, Telecom027 does have world-wide roaming for ALL non-prepay customers. You just need to call them at least 1 week to arrange a GSM loan phone to be delivered.

[Jazzbass 1]

I found it interesting that to us, telecom is a huge employer - not sure if its the biggest in our country, but I think it is. So when we study big companies, we think of Telecom.

In USA, telecom would be a small to small-mid size company.

Its all about scale of relativity and let's not forget, our 4 million people would be about the size of the average drive-thru queue at McDonalds in NYC

[OLLIE 26]

For those who don't know, Telecom027 does have world-wide roaming for ALL non-prepay customers. You just need to call them at least 1 week to arrange a GSM loan phone to be delivered.

how convenient

[OLLIE 26]

the i mate kjam is the best phone you can buy at the moment, it has full pda functionality and is no larger than your standard nokia but it's only available on vodafone which like has been said has not so good line quality and calls drop.

telecoms equivilant is the apache which is like 3 times the size. arghh

i think i'll stay with telecom, what do you guys think of the nokia 6255, 6265.

i think these are the only decent phones on telecom with bluetooth connectivity.

the main reason for wanting a new phone is to sync it with outlook.

[cainchapman 0]

Make me an offer for my Tungsten T. Then you can sync it with your outlook and use your phone as the data connection. I no longer use it, as I have Lotus notes at work (and so does Deb)

Nokia make some of the most reliable phones around and have better aerials (and reception) than most of the competitors too.

[OLLIE 26]

cheers for the offer Cain, however it would be preferable to have one device that does the lot (smartphone), also i'd prefer windows mobile over palm software.

p.s; what can you tell me about lotus notes.

[cainchapman 0]

Lotus Notes is a great database, however, it is not flash as an e-mail client. Especially if you travel alot. It takes forever to replicate your mail over a dial-up connection.

In PNG and the Pacific, it generally costs me more to check my e-mail each night than to pay for my hotel room.

[a13antichrist 0]

Aside from the local network issues, the main thing that will stop me ever buying a Telecom phone is that the SIM is built into the phone - what a pile of sh*t! Even if the phones were fantastic, the fact that I can't go to Europe & chuck in a French SIM card for instance is an immediate fail grade.

I got my current phone in France almost four years ago now. I've used it with French, Swiss, UK & NZ SIMs all while keeping my entire (100% phone-stored) address book. I'm looking at replacing it soon but I'm waiting for phones with WiFi and, more importantly, Skype- (and VoIP in general-) compatible.

[nz320i 0]

cannot convert from gsm to cdma, but i think you can go cdma to gsm.. thats all i know cheers