Vodafone NZ's converged service set to go

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 28 September 2006 19:34

Your IT - Home IT

A decision by the regulator will enable Vodafone New Zealand to proceed with its plan to launch a converged phone service whereby customers on its cellular network have a local number and can make calls from their mobiles at lower rates when at home or close by.

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In order to launch the service Vodafone had to be able to interconnect calls to and from its local numbers with Telecom New Zealand's fixed network.

New Zealand's regulator, the Commerce Commission, has ruled that Telecom and Vodafone should exchange calls to and from Vodafone's local numbers at a reciprocal price of zero in accordance with the ‘pure bill and keep’ pricing method. It has taken almost a year to reach this decision. Vodafone submitted its application in January and the Commission issued a draft decision in June.

This type of service was launched by Vodafone Germany in mid 2005 as Vodafone ZuHause Zone and Vodafone indicated it planned to extend it to multiple other countries.

The service enables Vodafone to take advantage of low-cost 3G network capacity and combat providers of inexpensive VoIP calls over broadband networks.