In a clever, if somewhat cheeky, piece of PR stunting, Black + White mobile is today holding a ‘memorial service’ for Telecom’s popular $10 TXT plan, which has not survived the switch to the new XT mobile network.
Black + White, a mobile virtual network operator (or MVNO) that uses Vodafone’s network, launched last October to predominantly target the prepay market.
In a media statement CEO Johnathan Eele said today that New Zealanders are paying too much for their mobiles. “We fail to see how the absence of $10 TXT will make this situation any better.”
Of course, Eele is using the demise of $10 TXT to promote Black + White’s own plans, which start at $30 and all include 600 texts a month.
“We’re here to give New Zealand a better deal without locking them in, providing 600 free texts per month does just that,” says Eele.
The ‘memorial service’ will take place in central Auckland this morning and will be followed by a full ‘funeral procession’ that will follow a route visiting locations of significance to $10 TXT. It does not provide any details of what these locations are or why they are significant.
The company has even opened a book of condolences for ‘mourners’ to leave messages of remembrance and to express their ‘grief’. It is offering a free phone and plan for a year for the person who leaves the best message. ‘Mourners’ can also enter the draw by texting in their message of remembrance.
With $10 TXT, Telecom customers could send up to 500 texts for $10 a month.
The plan proved extremely popular and was even described recently as a “game changer” by Vodafone chief executive Russell Stanners.
$10 TXT remains available on Telecom’s CDMA network. However, Telecom does offer an add-on package on XT that gives users 600 texts a month for $12, which is also available to prepay users.
The popularity of plans such as $10 TXT is understandable – many mobile phone users in this country simply can’t afford to make a lot of voice calls. The high cost of voice calls is driving this country’s text addiction.
And there is little reason why text messages should not be even cheaper than the $10 TXT offer. As emerged once again at the TUANZ Telecommunications Day conference last month, offering text services are incidental to running a mobile phone network, as messages piggyback on the existing link between the handset and cell tower and costs operators virtually nothing.
Meanwhile, a billing ‘gaffe’ has marred the experience of some XT launch customers as reported in Computerworld and the NBR this week.
Users who bought add-on packages on launch day, May 29, found they expired a few days later on June 1, as Telecom bills these extras on a monthly basis.
Telecom responded by saying it would refund the affected XT customers and that it would move to a pro-rata billing system.