Text users irate at Telecom's $10 u-turn

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

High users of Telecom's $10 a month text messaging offer are outraged at the company's move to impose a 500-message ceiling on the deal.

They have taken to the internet with a web-based petition, claiming defectors from Vodafone's network bought Telecom handsets to take advantage of unlimited texting.

Telecom's gung-ho advertising around the $10 texting campaign featured machineguns and chainsaws and an "all you can eat" message where texting from Telecom to its own 025 and 027 networks, Vodafone's 021 network and TelstraClear's 029 resold service networks had no ceiling.

The texting deal was seen as Telecom's way of trying to claw back market share in the youth market, where Vodafone reigns supreme.

However, Telecom has backed away from the aggressive flat-rate model and will set a limit of 500 national person-to-person text messages from June.

Telecom texting customers have received letters warning them of the changes and that the $10 deal will be preserved "until at least the end of 2004".

Telecom said there may be some delays in billing for text messages as the service was under high demand.

Ed Linklater, a Hamilton student, said he started the online petition on www.ucnz.com because Telecom was going back on its word to offer customers unlimited text messages for $10.

"They did all this advertising to get people on the network based around $10 text and now they are going back on their word," he said.

Linklater said he shifted to Telecom because of the offer, which he considered ideal for the youth market.

"I was always with Vodafone because Telecom is such a monopoly but I shifted when they did this. But now it's all wrong what they are doing."

Linklater said he sent 3800 text messages last month and used the system because it let his friends get back to him easily.

Young people were busy and did not have time to take calls so texting was very convenient, he said.

The web site had attracted 7700 respondents last night as local radio stations latched on to the issue and drummed up discussion.

Kevin Kenrick, Telecom Mobile general manager said the company was changing its offer because a small number of customers had been "text bombing" Vodafone customers which had made them angry and created network issues.

"Our customers call the Vodafone network and we don't want it to drop out because of issues created by text messaging," he said.

But Vodafone spokeswoman, Louise Hall, said there had been no complaints from customers about being bombed by Telecom mobile subscribers.

An industry source said Telecom pulled the plug on the flat-rate deal because the impact on revenue from texting would be too great.

About 5 per cent of Telecom customers were text bombing and one of them sent 27,000 texts in a month. That would come with a retail value of $5400, said Kenrick.

He would not say what the total value of texts sent on the Telecom network over this period were worth.

He said the company had also researched its customers and they told them that text bombing was not appreciated and that 500 text messages a month, or 16 a day, was a good number.

But Kenrick would not divulge the source of the research that has appeared to have influenced Telecom in setting the new ceiling.

He would not say how many customers moved to 027 because of the offer but added the company had great handsets which also caused customers to shift.

He said the offer of 500 text messages a month would stand until the end of the year and the company was constantly looking at how it could offer the best value to customers.

Speculation has pointed to Telecom's network being under extreme pressure because of the text demands placed on it by this campaign.

Kenrick said the network was functioning properly.