Telcoinabox becomes first reseller of XT network

Stuart Corner
Monday, 10 May 2010 10:30

IT Industry - Deals

Australia-based telecoms service provider, Telcoinabox, has become the become their first mobile virtual network aggregator on Telecom NZ's XT network, 12 months after entering the New Zealand market.

Telcoinabox says it has signed a three year deal that will enable it to wholesale mobile voice and data services on the XT network. It expects to generate $A30m in revenue over the life of the contract.

Telcoinabox NZ CEO, Shannon Fisher, told iTWire that the company had evaluated both the Vodafone NZ and Telecom NZ 3G networks. "Telecom NZ had the better coverage'¦They set out match the coverage of the old CDMA network. We know there are areas where XT is covering and performing where Vodafone has no coverage at all and we know from our own experience of using XT and Vodafone 3G that the performance of XT is much better."

Fisher said Telcoinabox had been in discussions with Telecom NZ about rolling out mobile since it launched Telcoinabox in New Zealand in April 2009. "We were keen from the outset to jump on the W-CDMA network [which underpins Telecom NZ's trouble-plagued XT mobile service] but we wanted to wait until the initial network start up problems were ironed out, which are usual with any new system."

He told iTWire that he believed Telecom NZ was now "well and truly on top of [the recent problems with XT]."

Telcoinabox expects SMEs, associations and unions, resellers and corporations to resell the service by offering telecommunication packages under their own brands to existing customers. The company says it is "in discussions with several potential wholesale customers who want to become their own telco."

CONTINUED