Vodafone customers migrating to 2degrees - but keeping number

Photo / Kenny Rodger

Over 100,000 people have switched telecommunications providers but kept their mobile number since August, about two-thirds of those moving to our newest telco.

Figures from the Telecommunications Carriers' Forum show number porting of mobile phones (changing providers but keeping your mobile number) spiked again last month, taking the total number of people who have used the mobile porting service since August to 101,940.

Around 65,000 of those moved to 2degrees, with 80 per cent of those moving from Vodafone, 2degrees mobile head of corporate communications and public relations Bryony Hilless said.

Vodafone today unveiled a new cut-price plan, offering 200 minutes of landline and mobile calls for $12 per month.

Vodafone head of corporate communications Paul Brislen said the plan was part of an ongoing push by the company to offer value for money deals to customers who made voice calls.

Mr Brislen said it was one of a series of marketing campaigns Vodafone will roll out in the next few months, and was not made in reaction to market talk.

Last year marked Vodafone's biggest Christmas to date, and this March trumped December sales figures, he said.

"That says to me there's a fundamental shift in the market. People want mobile broadband, they want smartphones and they come to us for that," he said.

Business customers in particular were making the shift to the network, and a lot of that business was coming from the South Island, Brislen said.

Telecom's CDMA network traditionally had better coverage in the South Island, but as this was being phased out, more customers were jumping on board with Vodafone, Brislen said.

Vodafone New Zealand is investing $500 million in extending its 3G network to reach 97 per cent of customers, particularly in the South Island.

Brislen said Vodafone did not disclose new customer numbers, but that the figures had been "astonishing" and more than compensated any loss in custom to 2degrees.

Telecom external communications manager Mark Watts said Vodafone's claims around business custom sounded like "marketing hullabaloo" which should be taken with a "liberal amounts of salt".

"They are using the word astonishing and they are not backing it up with figures."

Watts said he was not going to lose any sleep over any competitor claims and was confident Telecom knew what its customers need and would cater to that.

Telecom is due to announce its third quarter results on May 7.