Cellphone use statistics soar

By Richard Braddell

WELLINGTON - The proportion of New Zealanders with cellphones may have soared to more than 27 per cent, latest subscriber numbers released by Vodafone suggest.

Vodafone said it has more than doubled its subscriber numbers to 293,000 as at the end of September, from the130,000 when it took over BellSouth in October last year.

That, combined with an estimated 745,000 for Telecom, would take cellular penetration to more than 1 million people out of a population of 3.8 million.

The figures provide further confirmation of sharp growth in mobile use which has been largely driven by the popularity of pre-paid mobile.

But Vodafone's aggressive marketing and sponsorship are credited for stimulating demand which stood at a low 17 per cent for developed countries when it entered the New Zealand market last year.

Both Telecom and Vodafone have experienced strong growth in the last year, with the two companies now thought to be level-pegging in new sign-ups, with more than 20,000 each per month.

On current estimates, Vodafone would now have about 28 per cent of the market, up from perhaps 24 percent it may have inherited from BellSouth.

Vodafone's chief executive, John Rohan, said the company would be investing $200 million in New Zealand over the next two years in addition to the $750 million it paid to buy the business from BellSouth.

Telecom, meanwhile, is expected to name the successful bidder this month in its tender of a new digital CDMA network worth up to $200 million.

Nortel and Lucent Technologies are thought to be the front-runners, although Telecom's usual cellular equipment provider, Ericsson, may have made a late play.