Telco foes lure clients with freebies as 3G battle begins

Telecom's much-vaunted 3G XT Network goes live today.

Free phones and million-dollar give-aways are the weapons as the big two mobile networks go head to head in the war for 3G customers.

Telecom's 3G XT Network goes live today after being delayed two weeks by Vodafone's demanding its rival install filters to reduce network interference.

With details of all its pricing plans, Telecom is giving away phones and credit to the first people in the queue outside its flagship stores this morning.

Yesterday, Vodafone gave away $1 million in free credit as it announced the completion of its 3G network upgrade.

Both companies claim their 3G networks cover 97 per cent of the population, giving consumers faster speeds for mobile broadband.

Telecom is offering 14 plans, which feature a flat rate regardless of which network customers call, per-second billing once the call extends past a minute, and the option to share minutes among family or colleagues.

Telecom's director of mobile, Paul Hamburger, said the simplicity and transparency of the plans made it easier for customers to choose one.

Although Telecom's "my favourites" remains in the line-up, allowing customers to nominate a Telecom mobile or landline number to call free for a monthly $6 charge, its popular $10 text offer is not available on the new network.

Mr Hamburger said the offer of 1.2c texts on its TXT 1500 offer is better than the 2c per text on $10 TXT.

Mike Reynolds of soon-to-launch mobile network 2degrees was "underwhelmed" by Telecom's pricing.

The plans looked to be "more of the same with slightly different packaging".

Mr Reynolds said mobile pricing in New Zealand was "terrible" compared to Singapore, where he used to work.

Singapore had three mobile networks, a similar population and mobile network costs, yet was able to offer mobile deals half the price of what Telecom had come out with.

"We'll let the customers decide, but I don't see anything today that would make me run out," said Mr Reynolds.

2degrees launches in August.

TELECOM'S OFFER
* Calling plans start at $14.95 for 20 minutes a month (75c a minute) and go up to $799.95 for 2500 minutes (32c a minute).
* Prepaid customers pay 89c a minute for calls.
* Prepaid customers get bonus credit when topping up.
* Texts cost between 1.2c and 4c.
* Mobile broadband starts at $6 a month for 20Mb and goes up to $84.95 a month for 3Gb