Further Delays for New Zealand's 3rd Mobile Network

New Zealand's third mobile operator, NZ Communications has again delayed its network launch - this time until late next year. The operator's most recent plan was to launch its network this coming October, but a report in the Business Day newspaper said that the company has only built 50 of the required 400 base stations it needs to launch services.

The company signed an agreement last March with China's Huawei to build its network and at the time said that it would take around 18 months to build a national coverage. Huawei had signed a contract back in 2005 to build a core radio network in Auckland, and the company said that deliveries had started in 2006.

The company has signed a roaming agreement with Vodafone, but that only comes into effect once the network has launched some services on its own infrastructure.

New Zealand's competition watchdog, the Commerce Commission recently ruled that it would also not step in to regulate the national roaming rates. The difference between the price in their commercial agreement and a price likely to be set under regulation was too small to justify intervention, it said. The Commerce Commission did however also decide that a network operator can start services with just 100 base stations, or ten percent population coverage - still beyond NZ Communications reach, but easier to attain.

NZ Communications (formerly known as Econet Wireless) was granted a mobile license in 2001 when it formed an alliance with the Hautaki Charitable Trust which was allocated a 3G license at a discount price by the regulator.

On the web: Business Day

Posted to the site on 4th August 2008