Orcon delays mobile service till February

Orcon has pushed back the launch of its mobile phone service till the first week of February, but promises it will be "well worth the wait" with the state-owned owned telco lining up a range of services that it says will be new to New Zealand cellphone users.

Customers will be able to set their landline and mobile so they ring at the same time when they receive a call, so they could pick up on either, and could retrieve voicemail left on mobiles and landlines from a single voicemail box.

Chief executive Scott Bartlett says Orcon has a couple of bigger innovations in the wings. "Only one other carrier in the world is doing what we intend to do." Orcon is "actively working" on DVB-H, a broadcast technology trialled earlier in the year by parent Kordia that promises to revolutionise mobile TV by letting customers use their mobiles as fully-functioning mini-TV sets that could pick up Freeview free-to-air broadcasts.
But Mr Bartlett would not say whether this was one of the services Orcon had in mind for its mobile launch.
Kordia has previously estimated the cost of deploying DVB-H in a city the size of Auckland at about $10 million.
Orcon struck a deal to resell connections to Vodafone's mobile network in August last year and had originally hoped to start a service this month.
Mr Bartlett says the delay reflects the complexity of the wholesale deal it negotiated with Vodafone.
"Internal testing is kicking off now. It does involve a degree of network build between Orcon and Vodafone. We need to tie our network into theirs and tie our billing systems into their data warehouse. It is quite a bit of work, but it will be well worth the wait."
Customers will be able to switch from Vodafone to Orcon's service by plugging an Orcon sim card into their Vodafone mobile. Orcon says will also sell a range of handsets over its website which it is sourcing itself from manufacturers.
It will have exclusive rights to sell some iMate handsets in New Zealand and is talking with Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung, among others, he says.
Mr Bartlett says Orcon has not had to share its plans with Vodafone. "We have no intention of letting Vodafone know all the things we intend to do to differentiate ourselves in the market and they are quite happy about that, because it shows it is a wholesale and not just a resale deal.
"Obviously with any telecommunications service your ability to make significant profits is always encumbered when you don't own the asset, but for now we are happy with the deal."

from The Dominion Post