Mobile price-war benefits customers

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WELCOME: TUANZ chief executive Paul Brislen agrees the deals are good and hopes they're here to stay.

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A mini price-war has broken out in the mobile market as the country's three mobile network operators offer sharper deals to pre-pay customers willing to make an upfront spending commitment.

Vodafone and 2degrees are both offering $19 monthly bundles for a limited time that provide 50 minutes of calls, 5000 texts and 500 megabytes of mobile data.

Telecom is offering the same deal at the same price, but with an extra 10 minutes of call-time thrown in.

Its discount Skinny brand improved its pricing yesterday, offering 60 minutes of calls, another 60 minutes of Skinny-to-Skinny calls, 100 texts and 60 megabytes of mobile data priced at $4 a week.

Skinny manager Paul Taylor said the market had gone "gangbusters" in the past week. "The value propositions are a lot stronger."

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Paul Brislen agreed the deals were good and said he hoped they were here to stay.

Customers could in large part thank 2degrees for bringing more competition into the pre-pay market, he said.

"They have been so successful at this level of the market that the other telcos simply could not ignore it. The customers are the winners because suddenly we have got three or four really competitive offers there."

He hoped the improved offers would spread to the on-account and business market.

- © Fairfax NZ News