Faster phone top-ups proposed

Vodafone is suggesting the country could make more than $47 million in productivity gains if its Prepay phone subscribers adopt a new service, HotLink, to top up their accounts.

The service allows those subscribers who happen also to be Bank of New Zealand customers to put up to $200 credit on their phone by entering their debit card PIN on the handset.

The company estimates that would save its 1.4 million Prepay subscribers the average 10 minutes a month they spend obtaining recharge cards.

Telecom and ASB Bank launched a similar service, mTopup, a year ago.