NZ lagging behind in cellphone use

By Tom Clarke

A mobile phone for almost everyone in New Zealand is the objective of Vodafone's new general manager of sales, Andrew Barton.

While he acknowledges that is a big challenge, he says it is achievable considering what is happening around the world and the explosive growth in the industry.

"Mobile communications are become more affordable and mobile phones are just starting to take off," he says. "It's probably one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and New Zealand is currently lagging behind.

"In Finland, cellphone penetration is in the upper 50 per cent range, while in Australia it's around 35 per cent. In New Zealand, we're just over 20 per cent so we've got a long way to go to catch up with overseas trends.

"In the next three years, the mobile market in New Zealand is going to be a very exciting place to be."

Mr Barton says there is still a mistaken perception that cellphones are expensive, which he blames on some of the charging regimes and people's misunderstanding of communications costs.

Vodofone cellular phones are available with 200 minutes of "free" calls a month for $29.95 a month, which he says is far less expensive than a landline. Most Vodafone subscribers use less than that.

He predicts further changes soon to the cost of using cellphones, and he says Vodafone will probably be responsible for driving some of that.

Mr Barton says the business market is reasonably saturated with cellphones, and over the next three years he expects growth to come from the consumer market.

"More that half of the new connections to the Vodafone network now are first-time consumer users and we're expecting to see a rapid climb in that penetration," he says.

"Probably the next three years is where that will all happen, then the market will actively change again because by then a lot of people will have mobiles. Where it goes after that I'm not sure."

Mr Barton says the day is coming when everyone in a typical New Zealand household will have their own cellphone, along with a household landline telephone.

"The Vodafone strategy is based around replacing landlines, but there'll probably always be that level of comfort and security that people attach to a landline, whether they use it or not."

"Longer term, I think landlines will be used for things like Internet connections until the mobile can actually provide a good connectivity speed and start replacing the landline."

Mr Barton has been with Vodafone and its predecessor, BellSouth, for six years in a variety of marketing roles. He has been in the telecommunications industry for 20 years and has also worked for Telecom, Netway Communications, and in his own business.