Vodafone and Telecom settle
May 7th, 2009 at 12:30 pm by David FarrarVery pleased to see an agreement between the teclos. Vodafone says:
Vodafone and Telecom NZ have worked together over the last 48 hours to reach a solution to resolve the issues between them, which have been identified by both parties.
This agreement has been reached by both parties, to achieve the best outcome for their customers, the telecommunications industry and all New Zealanders.
Telecom has agreed to extend its network filter installation programme, in order to help resolve the interference issues identified as impacting Vodafone mobile customers.
Vodafone has agreed to discontinue its injunction proceedings. Telecom’s new XT mobile network will go live for New Zealanders by the end of May 2009.
I have not followed the court case, but the fact Vodafone has withdrew suggests they were unlikely to win.
UPDATE: A spokesperson for Vodafone tells me that they withdrew the court proceedings because Telecom agreed to everything they asked for.
Related posts:
- Vodafone vs Telecom
- Vodafone or Telecom or 2 Degrees?
- Telecom v Vodafone data roaming prices
- Vodafone buys TelstraClear
May 7th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
The fact that Telecom agreed to delay suggests they might have been a little bit behind schedule for their launch too…
Vote:May 7th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
not quite david
apart from the pr debacle “any publicity is good publicity” and this has only highlighted that telecom has a new network about to go live
you could also read it as vodafone winning on both counts … that telecom’s new network was/is interfering with theirs (telecom have agreed to put additional filtering on their transmitters) … and telecom have delayed their go-live to the end of the month which is only a couple weeks, but still egg on their face
Vote:May 7th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
One needs to be cautious when interpreting the media statements from both parties with regards to this settlement. What has been agreed is that Telecom will install filters where it is identified that the XT Network is causing out of band interference with Vodafone’s network. Filtering on Telecom’s transmitters will not resolve interference, where this results from Vodafone amplifying it’s receivers. So, there will be situations where potentially the XT Network is transmitting out of it’s allocated band, but also situations where Vodafone’s amplification of its receivers is picking up XT transmission that is within XT’s band. Given the MED has investigated and confirmed XT is operating within it’s spectrum allocation, a lot of the interference may well be due to Vodafone electing to amplify it’s receivers, rather than installing additional cell sites to provide coverage. I suspect the MED has based it’s investigation on a selection of cell sites, rather than testing all 1,000+??
Vote:May 7th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
IMHO Vodafone have squandered a lot of potential goodwill that could have come to them simply for being a major challenger to the old Telecom monopoly in NZ, by:
(1) Always being slightly more expensive than corresponding Telecom products; then
(2) assaulting us with alien-looking advertisements that make us feel dumb;
(3) Staffing their shops with snotty children who just want to sell phones, not look after customers; and now
(4) This underhanded-looking attempt to shaft their competitor in court, instead of “honestly” via my phone bill.
Sorry I know this doesn’t add much to the discussion. But maybe some Vodafone bigwigs will be reading!
Vote:May 7th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Another way of looking at it is there was free advertising for both sides. Telecom didn’t really need the Hamster when their friends at Vodaphone decided to play.
Vote:May 7th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
“Vodafone … withdrew the court proceedings because Telecom agreed to everything they asked for” sounds like corporate PR spin to me.
What seems to be going on is the confluence of (1) MED have mis-allocated the spectrum so that Telecom’s TX channel isn’t well enough separated from Vodafone and NZ Comms RX channels, and (2) Vodafone have elected to configure their network with less antennas but more reliance on amplifiers. So the inevitable spill-over from Telecom’s transmissions is being picked up by Vodafone’s receivers and then amplified to levels that are causing problems with Vodafone’s 900MHz ***GSM*** network.
Neither of those problems are really Telecom’s fault, and MED seems to have found that Telecom were indeed operating within the limits of their spectrum allocation and good practice.
Vodafone comes across as a petulant child in all of this. It looks as though they pulled the trigger on court action once Telecom announced their launch date, and may not have taken full opportunity to use mediation and other non-court options. And the interference seems heavily to be the result of how they’ve configured their antennas/amplifiers.
Meanwhile, as a Voda customer, I’d like them to explain how Telecom’s 850Mhz network is causing all the calling problems I’ve been having over the last 6 months with my 2100Mhz 3G phone. Personally I suspect that Voda’s network is not gracefully handing off calls from 2100Mhz WCDMA to 900Mhz GSM when the 3G signal isn’t strong enough. And that’s nothing to do with Telecom’s network.
Vote:May 8th, 2009 at 11:02 am
All I hope is that Vodafones service improves dramaticlly in Auckland otherwise I will be out of there. The 3rd network due to launch after Telecom may well be the way to go!
Vote: