Vodafone bids for new young customers with prepaid twist

Vodafone says young people are communicating in images rather than texts and need adjustable prepaid plans. Photo / Duncan Brown

Vodafone is targeting young customers with a new twist on prepaid accounts.

Customers under the age of 25 will be able to adjust their prepay plan on a month-by-month basis under a new scheme called Vodafone Mates.

Customers can adjust the limit for text messages, data and call minutes their prepay plan allows on the My Vodafone app, online and in store from today.

Head of segment at Vodafone, Delina Shields, said Vodafone has "always been a youthful brand" in the New Zealand market.

Shields said Vodafone had canvassed hundreds to New Zealand teenagers and young adults to rebrand its prepay offer.

"The way they communicate is evolving, [there's] far more focus on images, rather than words," Shields said.

Delina Shields, head of segment at Vodafone. Photo / Supplied

Sending and receiving images across social media like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook uses more data than sending and receiving text information.

A customer paying $19 for a monthly plan could one month get 100 minutes of call, unlimited texts and 500MB of data. The next month the customer could alter the $19 plan for more data and fewer texts and calls.

Vodafone has been the biggest mobile provider in the country, but chief competitor Spark claimed it expected to surpass Vodafone in mobile revenue.

Documents released in the proposed merger deal between Sky TV and Vodafone showed the telco expected to earn $1.065 billion in mobile revenue (excluding wholesale customers) in the 12 months to June 30 2016.

Spark said in June it expected its mobile revenue in the same period would exceed $1.1 billion, a lift of at least 7.9 per cent on last year.

Peter Wise, country manager for International Data Corporations (IDC), said in June that Spark and Vodafone both had reasonable claims to the top spot.

Vodafone reported 2.4 million connections, compared to IDC's estimation of 2.26 million connections for Spark.