2degrees ramps up data plans in price war with Spark

2degrees sweetened its mobile data plans for a second time in a fortnight after Spark responded to its earlier move. On Monday, 2degrees announced a plan with 25GB of mobile data for $70. The company points out there are no hot spot or speed restrictions on this plan. Customers can also carry over unused data from one month to the next. 

That’s a direct response to the $80 ‘unlimited’ plan Spark announced the previous week. Spark customers get unlimited talk and texts along with unlimited mobile data. However, only the first 22GB of data is delivered at full speed, once a customer goes over that limit, the speed is reduced. 

Spark’s move was in itself a response to 2degrees. A week earlier it introduced a 10GB data plan for $55 a month and 15GB for $70. 2degrees was the first carrier to offer a mobile plan in April of this year when it launched one at $130 a month.

No response from Vodafone

At the time of writing Vodafone hasn’t moved on its plans. Its best offer is 15GB for $100.  

2degrees likes to position itself as the mobile market challenger. It acknowledges that these big data plans are an important statement of intent. After all, they target a specialist user niche.  In a media statement accompanying the announcement chief marketing officer Ray Ong notes the average customer uses less than 5GB of mobile data in a month with few getting close to 25GB. 

Ratcliffe joins 2degrees board

Former Chorus managing director Mark Ratcliffe has joined the 2degrees board. Before Chorus, Ratcliffe had senior roles at Telecom NZ. He has more than 25 years telecommunications industry experience. 

Ratcliffe was appointed to the 2degrees board by Tesbrit. The company owns a 27 percent interest in 2degrees. Earlier this year the Overseas Investment Office gave Tesbrit approval to buy up to 49.9 percent of 2degrees. In May 2degrees reported its first profit after seven years of operation. 

Vocus extends broadband powerplay to Orcon

Orcon has followed its Vocus stablemate Slingshot into the electricity retail business. Taryn Hamilton who heads Vocus’s consumer division says the move was a “no-trainer” after the earlier experience at Slingshot. 

He says: “…bundled services are the future. Customers are keen to keep connected and save money by having a bunch of their home utilities with one provider and one monthly bill.” 

It took Slingshot five months to pick up 3,000 active customers. That’s fast-growing by electricity industry standards. 

Voyager back on acquisition track with Conversant buy

Voyager Internet has bought Conversant, an internet phone services company which has its own Voice over IP technology. The price of the deal has not been made public. 

Internet service providers often struggle to find decent VoIP products, so Voyager’s acquisition should speed its growth. While Voyager serves consumers, it’s main focus is business, the VoIP sweet spot.  

Conversant founder Cameron Beattie will move to Voyager along with the rest of his team. There, he will establish an innovations department to develop other new technologies. 

Last year Voyager acquired Wellington-based Actrix Networks, New Zealand’s first ISP. 

Spark to sell Cisco Spark, resolves brand clash

Spark NZ is now the exclusive New Zealand distributor of a Cisco communication system that is also called Spark. The move is part of a broader deal with Spark NZ's Telegistics subsidiary now a full Cisco distributor. 

The two companies have previously been in dispute over the trademark. In negotiations Spark NZ agreed to licence the brand so Cisco can use it locally. 

Cisco Spark is a set of messaging and collaboration tools. It features messaging, calling, file sharing, encryption and secure workspaces. There is also 4K video conferencing. The tools includes both AI and virtual reality capabilities.