Telecom caps price of text messaging

Telecom caps price of text messaging

In a first for New Zealand, Telecom is capping the price of text at $10 a month for customers with 027 mobile phones from 1 August.

The $10 text cap applies to national and international person-to-person texting on 027 Prepaid and monthly call plans except Boost Mobile, Builder plans and multi phone plans.

The new $10 text cap means that while sending a text to another person will continue to cost just 20c, those 027 customers can send as many person-to-person text messages as they want and the most they’ll pay is $10 a month.

Telecom Mobile Head of Marketing, Kevin Bowler, said text is taking off and Telecom’s $10 text cap will give customers price certainty for text as it is becoming an increasingly popular method of communication.

“When Telecom introduced ‘$5 Weekends’ it opened up national calling to more New Zealanders by giving them price certainty. The $10 text cap is designed to do the same by giving people the certainty of knowing that they can text all they want and pay no more than $10 a month,” he said.

He said the $10 text cap represented great value because 027 customers who send as few as two text messages a day could save with the $10 text cap.

Almost two thirds of the 320,000 customers on Telecom’s 027 network were already texting. Mr Bowler said some serious texters on 027 had been known to send more than 1,000 texts a month. “With the $10 text cap the only thing someone like that will have to worry about is a sore thumb.”

He said the $10 text cap was another great reason for New Zealanders to move up to 027 and represented another benefit for those who had already made the move to New Zealand’s advanced mobile network.

In April 2003 Telecom launched Xtra Mobile Services on 027, giving more than 320,000 people with 027 mobiles the ability to access advanced mobile services such as weather forecasts, the latest news and sports updates, mobile games and Xtra email when they’re out and about.

Mr Bowler said just as Xtra Mobile Services gave both existing and new 027 customers access to advanced mobile services without the need to upgrade to an expensive new phone, the $10 text cap applies to new and existing customers across 027 Prepaid and monthly plans except Boost Mobile, Builder plans and multi phone plans.

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