New Zealand's first charitable telecommunications trust will launch this week, promising to match prices offered by the major networks.

Vodafone is watching the overseas use of technology capable of locking drivers out of mobile phone functions.

Right now, it's a lonely life being a Windows Phone 7 mobile.

Soaring wholesale power prices last week have prompted complaints from 14 organisations, including ASB bank, Telecom, Vodafone and the owner of the Marsden Point oil refinery.

Today's fatal police shooting near Napier is the seventh in just over a decade, since Waitara man Steven Wallace's death in 2000.

No one sells more mobiles than Nokia, but the company has struggled for years to produce a smartphone with wow factor.

Much of Christchurch is without essential services after yesterday's earthquake with gas, power, water and phone infrastructure all affected.