KEY POINTS:
The company that is challenging the Vodafone-Telecom duopoly for mobile phones has secured access to the 022 prefix for its customers.
But despite having hired hundreds of staff to establish its new network, it has still not announced its brand name and launch date.
New Zealand Communications regulatory manager Bill McCabe said that rights to the 022 prefix made it easier to draw customers from Telecom and Vodafone. On Friday McCabe insisted it was on track to build its network and take on the incumbents.
But he would not hint at a launch date or brand name for the new 3G phone service, which will aim at lowering New Zealand's notoriously high mobile phone rates.
New Zealand Communications is owned by Hong Kong-based General Enterprise Management, Communication Venture Partners of London and Trilogy International Partners, with a 20 per cent Maori interest through the Hauraki Trust.
The company is believed to have held talks with Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile.
A tie-up would give the mobile challenger a head start attracting customers from Vodafone and Telecom.
But New Zealand Communications said on Friday that it would launch with a new brand name.
Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand chief Ernie Newman said the allocation of the 022 number could be seen as a small marketing win.
He said he was impressed with the new player after visiting the company and witnessing its push to establish its network.
New Zealand Communications had been "written off" by the industry after slow progress but it proved to have the energy to get the network up and running.
"They have a lot of obstacles in front of them, but I would predict that the day they announce their launch date the high prices New Zealanders are paying for mobile phone services will begin to fall," Newman said.
McCabe acknowledged that any launch this year would coincide with marketing efforts for the established players, as Telecom pushes ahead with the belated launch of its new 3G network scheduled for June.
Vodafone has signalled it will match that marketing.
New Zealand Communications is the only full network that is launching in competition with Vodafone and Telecom.
But it is not the only new mobile brand on the market.
Vodafone is wholesaling access to its mobile network with youth-oriented Black and White, and Compass. But these brands will be limited in their ability to challenge the big players on price.
McCabe confirmed that a regulatory battle was looming with a Commerce Commission inquiry into termination charges - the prices that networks charge for callers into their networks.
New Zealand Communications argues that high prices for these wholesale termination rights - the price for accessing their callers - are used by Telecom and Vodafone to prevent new competitors.
