Orcon joins the mobile market

Published: 6:03AM Monday July 19, 2010 Source: NZI Business

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Orcon is joining the mobile phone market with a no fixed term contracts strategy and says it wants "customers not prisoners"

The telecommunications company says it wants to "shake up the space" with simple, no catch plans, and no fixed term contracts like it has used successfully in the broadband market.

Orcon is introducing a range of four mobile plans with rates from $0.39 per minute and a text rate of $0.20. Customers can bring their existing mobile number or get a new 020 Orcon number.

CEO Scott Bartlett says the launch in to the mobile market is a natural progression for the company and he is targeting 1% of the market.

"No fixed term contracts on mobiles is a real game-changer. You don't have anything else like it in the market. Essentially we want to have customers not prisoners."

"Right now all other players in the on-account mobile market lock-in their customers to monthly or longer contracts - Orcon's having none of that. We're extending our broadband philosophy by doing away with mobile fixed term contracts altogether," Bartlett said.

He admits the "no contracts" strategy is risky and said the profit margin will be smaller but feels it is worth it for their point of difference and to provide additional services to their existing clients.

Orcon's plans are no-nonsense, transparent and world-class its CEO says and customers with Orcon mobile, landlines and broadband will only have to deal with one bill.

Bartlett says Orcon mobile will launch with four devices; Nokia 5030 ($60), Nokia 2730 ($199), Nokia E71 ($699) and exclusive to Orcon HTC HD Mini ($699). He says more will be announced throughout the year.

All have a basic text rate of 20 cents but there are a couple of add-on text bundles at $11.95 for 500 to any network or $9.95 for 2,000 to the Orcon, Vodafone and all other mobile operators that use the Vodafone network except 2degrees.

Mobile data costs on phones will either cost a casual rate of a 'dollar a day' for 10MB or people can buy a 1GB add on for $49.95 a month.

Bartlett says Orcon's Purple Mobile operates the same as a pre pay mobile plan, with customers only paying per minute or per text. Customers are billed at the end of the month in what he calls post-pay.

The company plans to be offering prepay services by Christmas.

Orcon's mobile network is being provided by Vodafone so they operate as a virtual mobile operator.

What do you think? Would you switch to Orcon? Share your thoughts on the messageboard below

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