Company Performance Metrics
- Andrew Fairgray: Chief Business Officer
- Tracy Leighton: Chief Customer Operations Officer
2degrees is a U.S. and British-owned mobile phone provider operating in New Zealand with 580,112 customers (12.5% of New Zealand's population). They launched on 5 August 2009 after 9 years of planning. 2degrees currently offers prepaid and pay monthly mobile services. 2degrees has spent $250 million building its network in the main city
centers of Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, plus the tourist destination Queenstown. Their network will work with GSM and UMTS mobiles compatible with the competing Vodafone and Telecom XT networks. In areas without 2degrees coverage handsets will roam on Vodafone's GSM and UMTS network.
2 Degrees now has launched full services using GSM-900 and UMTS-2100 technology in Hamilton and Tauranga. Both these areas are now mobile broadband zones, providing New Zealand's cheapest Prepaid Mobile Broadband. As a part of the new cell site build program cell sites have recently been constructed in or are in the process of being constructed in Whangarei, Rotorua, Taupo, Napier, Hastings, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Levin, Nelson, Dunedin, and Invercargill. 2degrees aims to have these cities mobile broadband ready as soon as practical, and many are in testing phase.
2degrees halved the prevalent pricing for prepaid mobile in the New Zealand market, with voice calls costing 44 cents compared to 89 cents being charged by Telecom. SMS messages are charged at 9 cents compared to 20 cents on Vodafone and Telecom customers without a text plan. Customers will receive 300 to 500 free SMS messages per $30–$50 prepay top-up. Also, customers will receive a special rate of 22 cents for on-network and landline calls, as well as 2 cents per on-network SMS, provided they have topped up within the last 30 days. On 25 May 2010, 2degrees announced several new plans; $10 txt ($10 for 500 any network text messages; later upgrading to 1000, 2000, and now 2500 texts). $6 Data Bundles, $6 for 50 MB of mobile data, $10 for 100 MB of mobile data, and some calling plans. Currently, Vodafone NZ offers $12 for 2500 any network SMS messages on a prepaid plan, and Telecom's XT Network offers a $12 2500 any network text prepay plan. SIM cards are available for $5 instead of $30 charged by the other two companies, however, they only come with $1 credit compared with the $10 provided from the other networks (+$10, if details are registered online). 2degrees also sold $2 SIM cards with a $2 credit. They also gave away free SIMs as part of their Chinwag & launch week campaigns and give them away with most new handsets.
