Telstra, Vodafone Bicker Over NZ Subscribers

Written by Adam Gosling

Tuesday, 14 August 2007

Just who owns the subscribers TelstraClear signed up to the now defunct agency agreement between New Zealand Vodafone and TelstraClear is a question the 11,000 customers involved would no doubt rather see resolved quickly. With the announcement yesterday that TelstraClear has signed a mobile network services deal with New Zealand telco incumbent Telecom, the previous deal Telstra's NZ subsidiary had with Vodafone now has no chance of being resurrected. All that's left now between the two companies is to resolve who owns the 11,000 plus business customers signed up under the agreement, according to this report. The customers accounted for an estimated 40,000 handsets on the Vodafone network with TelstraClear handling all the customer service and billing. The customers include a number of large corporate and Government customers including New Zealand's Inland Revenue Department and the Social Development Ministry. As you can expect, Vodafone is now saying that as TelstraClear was acting as a Vodafone agent the customers should remain with Vodafone when the agreement ended in July this year. And of course,TelstraClear has a different view. "In terms of the other (029) customers - and indeed with the enterprise and government customers - Vodafone and Telstra Clear have conflicting views about who owns those customers," Chief Executive Allan Freeth said. In an interesting revelation it has also emerged that the Telecom agreement with TelstraClear is to use Telecom's CDMA network not its new 3G W-CDMA network which will be completed by the end of next year. TelstraClear's Freeth said the company would discuss the potential of using that network if there was demand. Related news items Hybrid Drive Boosts Laptop's Skillset -10/10/2007 Consumers Want FMC: Companies Don't See The Benefit -02/10/2007 The Poor Man's Palm -02/10/2007 Palm Goes Consumer With Treo 500v -12/09/2007 Vodafone UK Promises All-You-Can-Hear Music -12/09/2007 Newer news items Telstra To Fund Programs That Reduce Bullying -04/02/2008 ACCC Alleges Crazy John's Advertising Misleading -22/01/2008 Telstra Launches Another Coonan Attack -12/09/2007 Consumer Advice For Premium Mobile Services -03/09/2007 iPhone Thumbs Story Running Even Though A Hoax -14/08/2007 Older news items Telstra Tackles Canberra In Court -03/08/2007 Greenies Slam Recycling Efforts -30/07/2007 VIPtel Telemarketers Were Misleading: ACCC -29/07/2007 ACMA Issues Biggest Ever Fine To Phone Spammer -23/07/2007 Feuding Mobile Email Players Settle Their Differences -10/07/2007 Tag This Now: