Telecom pledges simpler price plans on XT

Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond in an ad for Telecom's new 850MHz XT network.

Mobile phone users were yesterday promised calls priced per second rather than minute and the end of extra charges for calling rival networks on Telecom's XT network.

Customers signing up to the XT Network will choose from 14 plans - down from the 60 it offers now.

Although only scant details of charges were made available, Telecom said phone users would no longer be charged extra for calls to Vodafone customers, would not incur penalties for running over the allotted minutes for a plan and pre-paid customers would pay per second rather than per minute once they talked longer than a minute. Data charges are under wraps, but Telecom confirmed it would match Vodafone's $1 a day casual rate, capped at 10 megabytes.

IDC analyst Rosalie Nelson said the focus on simple price plans was encouraging.

"I think that is long overdue and much needed and actually meets where the market is today."

Ms Nelson said consumers could expect price competition but not necessarily "price disruption" in the opening salvos of the mobile war.

"You don't start off with your best offer. This is going to evolve as they see how Vodafone responds."

From August Vodafone and Telecom will be joined by new player 2degrees.

"If you're talking about the battle of the bands, they're both really cranking up their 3G amps at the moment and 2degrees I'm not sure how they're going to be drowned out by some of the noise," said Ms Nelson.

Telecom also gave details of 18 phones and two data devices, including Samsung's S8300 Loches, boasting a high-quality OLED screen, a BlackBerry Bold and Palm Treo Pro smartphone.

Nokia phones from the $299 3120 to its newly launched N85 flagship, at $1499, would be available.