Download Weekly: Orcon brings call centre home

Orcon to shift hub from Manila to Aotearoa

Orcon says it will close its Manila call centre and open a new one at the company's office on Auckland's North Shore. The company says the new call centre will start operating early next month.

The move will create 60 jobs. Orcon says the people are already hired and have been trained. They will use a new digital support model that the company says will see general enquiries dealt with by email. Specialists will deal with technical questions.

Orcon says the move is happening because customers prefer dealing with a New Zealand based team. Other call centre operators have also said the economics of running a local call centre have improved in recent years although there are problems hiring and keeping people with the necessary skills.

General manager Taryn Hamilton says: "The move home has given us the chance to look at how we can do things better. He says having the centre based in New Zealand would give the support team the ability to identify and respond to issues faster, in real time.

Orcon is part of the Vocus group which is on the market to be sold by the middle of next year.

Vodafone plans IPO next year

Chris Keall at the NBR reports Vodafone New Zealand's parent company says it intends to explore an IPO of the local company during 2018. It confirms a number of early reports — some carefully planted in the media by the financial company's lined up to manage the listing. When the company was preparing to merge with Sky TV, the New Zealand telco was valued at $3.44 billion.

ComCom educates broadband beginners

The Commerce Commission released two more guides as part of its consumer education project. The guides are all aimed at beginners. This week's additions show users how to choose a service provider and monitor its performance.

“When consumers experience problems, we want to help them identify the potential causes, as well as giving them practical advice about what they can do to try and improve their broadband before they take it up with their internet service provider,” says Telecommunications Commissioner Dr Stephen Gale.

Contact Energy enters broadband fray

Tom Pullar-Strecker at BusinessDay reports Contact Energy is selling broadband to its power customers. He says the company offers plans on both fibre and copper connections.

Contact's offer is simple. All plans are uncapped and prices are $90 a month. Customers get a modem and do not have to sign fixed-term contracts. However, for now the offer is only available to Contact's power customers.

Tauranga-based TrustPower already sells broadband. It's RSP business is large enough to figure among the Commerce Commission's list of telcos paying the Telecommunications Development Levy. It is one of the top five broadband companies, although a long way behind the market leaders.

Meanwhile companies in the Vocus group now sell power to broadband customers. There is a move to attract customers with the idea they only need pay a single bill for both utilities.

Vodafone launches zero-rated Pass

Vodafone has launched Pass, it's a way customers can buy unlimited use of popular online services such as chat, social media, music or video. The idea is they pay a fixed amount and can use unmetered data for one, seven or 28 days.

Prices vary depending on the type of service and length of time. A one day chat pass costs $1, while 28 days of unlimited video from selected streaming services costs $20.

The passes are only available to customers on existing plans and cannot be used for tethering or hotspots. There are also fair use restrictions.

2degrees revives data hunt promotion

2degrees augmented reality data hunt promotion is back for a second year. The hunt is a Pokémon Go style game where people use their phones to find hidden prizes of data bundles they can use on their 2degrees accounts.

Last year more than 185,000 people took part and they found 220 million megabytes of data.

2degrees Chief Marketing Officer Roy Ong says more than 60,000 players joined in the first week last year. He says the app was number one on the App Store and Google Play.

It seems to have worked for the company. Ong says: "25 per cent of the players last year weren’t even 2degrees customers when they started playing."