Funeral procession marks death of the $10 TXT

Chief executive Johnathan Eele at this morning's 'funeral procession'

A funeral procession marking the death of $10 texts on Telecom's new XT Network made its way through Central Auckland this morning.

A funeral cortege visiting "locations of significance to $10 TXT" - a publicity stunt by mobile player Black + White - followed a memorial service at Britomart.

On Telecom's old CDMA network customers could send 500 text to any mobile phone for $10 or 2c per text.

The company's BoostTXT plan offered 2000 texts to another Telecom mobile for $10 - equal to 0.5c a text.

On its new XT Network texts cost between 1.2c and 4c when customers sign up for a text plan or 20c per text for casual use.

In response to the demise of the popular text plans Black + White are offering 600 texts free to any New Zealand mobile with all its plans.

Chief executive Johnathan Eele said the pricing released by Telecom last week for its new network was "totally uninspiring".

"I accept that the plans are simpler however there is very little differentiation between what they have offered and what ourselves and Vodafone offer," he said.

Black + White run a mobile service on the back of a wholesale deal with Vodafone.

"I was nervous for our business that their pricing was going to mean that we were going to have to completely rethink our business model and our pricing structure," said Eele.

"What they've done is they've made it really easy for us to pull a lever on this text messaging and really make a good position for us."

He said customer acquisition over the past month had slowed as people waited to see what deals Telecom would offer, but following Telecom revealing its prices enquiries had "sky-rocketed".

Eele said while the release of the plans gave Black + White an opportunity to offer a discount it hasn't set the stage for the high-scale competition everyone was hoping for.

Eele invited people to leave messages of remembrance in a condolence book or by sending a text to 244 with the word "black" followed by a message.

He said the best message would win a free phone and Black + White mobile plan for a year.