NZMac.com - Supporting the New Zealand Mac community

Apparently Telecom is making noise about selling the iPhone in New Zealand which they think will help boost their GSM network that they are currently building. I hope not because I hate Telecom. If Apple makes deals with Telecom AND Vodafone I think it will be a good thing for New Zealand and Apple.

http://stuff.co.nz/4449431a28.html

I don't think New Zealand is big enough for an AT&T/O2 style lock in contract but at the same time I think that what the iPhone sets out to achieve Vodafone is in a better position than Telecom to provide the correct services.

Vodafone also has the cheapest plans in the OECD while Telecom has the most expensive. Of course Orcon has also made noise about selling the iPhone but that uses the Vodafone network not Telecom's.

If the iPhone gets sold by Telecom then I will admit I will never get an iPhone, at least not until the lockin is up. I'll be more than happy getting an iPod Touch instead to be brutal about it.

Personally I think going to Telecom would be a bad move for Apple but that's just me.

lowededwookie wrote:
Personally I think going to Telecom would be a bad move for Apple but that's just me.

And me !

Phil

Although I suppose should be happy that support and sales of Apple's products are getting mentioned as desirable, that article is still outrageously misleading.

There's a "No comment" equivalent, and then one sentence about the iPhone (which obviously came from a question put to Butler rather than him coming out and saying it).
The entire rest of the article is full of network plans and gibberish acronyms.

Obviously the "journalist" decided to put the word iPhone in the title to draw readers, even though the article had nothing to do with it.

I wouldn't be that dismissive of it, although I agree with your sentiments. The "good inference" phrase worries more than the fact they will have an iPhone capable network.

Phil

The reason I think going for Telecom would be a bad move for Apple is that traditionally Telecom has had nothing to do with GSM. Vodafone has been GSM since back in the days of BellSouth (ironically a subsidiary of AT&T) and thus it means Vodafone's network is stable.

If Apple went to Telecom whose GSM network is still in development phase then it means that outages could turn people away from the iPhone. "Don't get an iPhone, it doesn't work properly" people would say despite the fact that the iPhone is not at fault but the provider.

That being said, if Orcon pick it up then they would be using the Vodafone network but don't have the niggly problem of having their own music store to compete with iTunes. As such Orcon IMHO are the best that Apple could go with. Orcon already have a great Mac support, far better than the others, and so seem to me to be the logical choice. I would drop Vodafone in favour of Orcon in a second if they bought the iPhone to New Zealand and I love Vodafone because they've been so good to me so that's how much confidence I have in Orcon (I don't think I've ever heard a bad thing about them to be honest).

Plus which...Telecom aren't exactly Mac friendly....
http://www.nzmac.com/mac-friendly/isp-web-host/xtra.html


Phil

Electronista have picked up the story....but add nothing new....
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/03/28/iphone.in.new.zealand/

Phil

Interesting is the fact that Telecom are building a GSM850, and UMTS 2100 Network.

I'm sure Telecom will have more than a few headaches moving to GSM. Lucent (their service provider) were heavily invested in CDMA - I remember before the CDMA rollout asking a Telecom representative why they wouldnt go GSM instead of CDMA. His answer was simply that Telecom did not want to be seen to follow, and that GSM was a dead end. Now Telecom are simply doing something Vodafone did 10 years ago (in the case of GSM) or two years ago (in the case of UMTS 2100).

One thing I would put money on is that Telecom would Network or SIM lock their phones so Telecom customers would not be able to use their phones on Vodafone if they decided to jump ship. Currently Vodafone do not lock there phones to their network - but with NZ COMMS and Telecom coming into the GSM space - who knows what would happen?

In Europe (where GSM was designed) GSM currently uses 900,1800 MHZ bands. The UMTS service in Europe is currently limited to 900, and 2100 MHz bands. Vodafone NZ uses the Europe frequencies, so their phones are compatible with most (not necessarily all - this is phone dependant) of these bands. I believe that GSM850 is another American standard along with GSM1900.

It will be interesting to see when Apple release a UMTS 2100 iPhone, will they also include UMTS 900. Personally I believe that NZ and Europe are well ahead of the US when it comes to the data performance of UMTS over EDGE. I cant believe Telecom are investing in EDGE when the max data rate for EDGE2 is just a little over 500kbs.

The iPhone is Quadband so it shouldn't matter either way.

Telecom is going to have a problem in that they will need to run two systems simultaneously, that of CDMA and GSM. Then it will have to force customers to go to new phones and that worked so well last time didn't it?

If I was going to sell my phone to someone it would be to those with experience not a startup so I don't see Telecom being in a good position at the moment.

My money is on Orcon with Vodafone a close second if they decide to change their stance on iTunes.

Actually speaking of the Vodafone Music Downloads, anyone here actually used it? It seems stupid to have music only on the phone and not be able to listen to it on anything like the iPhone's use of iTunes does.

Vodafone claim that they do significantly more downloads than iTunes. Although I've never done one on Vodafone, I've downloaded a number of albums on iTunes - so I seem to be out of step in that regard.

Apple's business model around revenue sharing is a hinderance to the mobile network operators - I believe Vodafone (and other operators around the world) want a bigger bite at the cherry. The fact Vodafone won the right to use unlocked iPhones in the UK, shows they want their customers to have the phone - but dont want to pay the price when it comes to an iTunes contract.

I think Telecom will be so desperate to get market share - they will sign any deal, so they have something to market to their customers over Vodafone.... if it's not the iPhone it will have to be something just as attractive to their marketers.

Personally I believe an alliance between Telecom and Apple, could only serve to tarnish Apple's brand - given the groundswell of opinion against Telecom in this country. Telecom and Microsoft seemed a better fit when it came to business ideology.