28 Jul 2009

Third mobile phone network to start in August

9:22 pm on 28 July 2009

The country's latest mobile phone network will be launched on 5 August.

2degrees, which will be New Zealand's third network, will present its prices, services and handsets at the launch in central Auckland.

The company is already pushing for changes to mobile termination rates, which companies charge each other to connect calls from rival networks, or from landlines to mobiles.

The Commerce Commission says Telecom and Vodafone are charging twice what they should to terminate calls on their networks and it recommends regulating the charges by 2011.

2degrees says it would like the changes implemented before then so it can avoid excessive charging by its rivals.