Wellington - New Zealand's dominant telecommunications company Telecom is to build a new NZ$300 million (US$226 million) high-speed mobile network to improve customer connections with the rest of the world and hold onto corporate customers, according to reports Saturday. The new 3G network, which should go live by late 2008, would improve broadband speeds, increase customers' capacity to 'roam' or use cellphones around the world, and give customers a greater choice of mobile handsets, Telecom said in a statement.
The New Zealand Herald newspaper noted that fewer than 20 per cent of mobile networks around the world use Telecom's current technology, which reduced customers' roaming options.
Telecommunications analyst Greg Main told the newspaper that Telecom estimated was missing out on revenue from 'roaming' customers that used the rival Vodafone worldwide network. The analyst estimated this foregone revenue at NZ$100 million (US$75 million) a year.
