KEY POINTS:
Vodafone hopes to unlock Telecom's stranglehold on the home phone market, today releasing a toll-free service which eliminates the need for a fixed-line phone.
To use the service, customers plug their existing handsets, cordless or corded, into a box and make calls, keeping their existing phone number.
But their calls will then be transmitted via the Vodafone mobile network - bypassing Telecom's copper wire network.
Vodafone's general manager of products, Kursten Shalfoon, said it was the first time that national competition had existed in the local fixed-line market. Traditionally Telecom has had the market to itself through its control of fixed-line infrastructure, although Telstra competes in Wellington and central Christchurch.
Called "Vodafone at home", the service offers unlimited free national calling to any local number and means consumers no longer need to have a Telecom landline to make and receive free local calls.
"The idea of toll calling areas is old fashioned and out of date so we've decided not to bother with it at all," Shalfoon said. "For the first time every New Zealander will be able to make a complete break from the old way of making phone calls."
Vodafone has been chipping away at Telecom's offerings in a bid to expand beyond the mobile market. Earlier this year it bought internet service provider ihug, and offered a free broadband package, and in November released a business tolls package offering heavily discounted calls to mobiles.
Shalfoon said Vodafone had been working on the new service for "a number of years", and the company had to get help from the Commerce Commission to access local numbers.
He would not give figures but said that the investment was "sig-nificant".
Shalfoon said Vodafone's next offering would be a mobile phone version of the box which would work within a virtual zone in the home, next year.
The "Vodafone at home" service costs $39.95 a month. Calls to Vodafone mobiles would have a set price per minute, and international calls would be based on Vodafone's existing fixed-line offers. The box will retail for $99.
Calls to Vodafone mobiles in New Zealand will still cost 39c a minute and calls to other mobiles 55c a minute.
FACT BOX
* Vodafone is taking on Telecom in the fixed line market.
* New service from Vodafone means no need for fixed line and no more local toll calls.
* Customers pay $39.95 a month for an unlimited number of calls, including free toll calls.
* The box retails for $99.
