XT Mobile Network
Encyclopedia
Mobile Network Code: 503 05
NZ non-geographic prefix: 027
The XT Mobile Network is a UMTS mobile network run by Telecom New Zealand
Telecom New Zealand
Telecom New Zealand is a New Zealand-wide communications service provider , providing fixed line telephone services, a mobile network, an internet service provider , a major ICT provider to NZ businesses , and a wholesale network infrastructure provider to other NZ CSPs...
. It operates nationwide in the 850 MHz frequency, with 2100 MHz infill in major urban areas.
The network is HSPA+ enabled, with a maximum downlink transmission rate of 21.1 Mbit/s and an uplink rate of 5.2 Mbit/s attainable for capable hardware. HSPA+ has a theoretical maximum of 56 Mbit/s download speed and 22 Mbit/s upload speed. The network is not 2G capable.
For many customers on the CDMA network, the only noticeable difference between the two networks was the requirement of a Subscriber Identity Module
Subscriber Identity Module
A subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module is an integrated circuit that securely stores the International Mobile Subscriber Identity and the related key used to identify and authenticate subscriber on mobile telephony devices .A SIM is held on a removable SIM card, which...
.
On 30 November 2010 Telecom New Zealand
Telecom New Zealand
Telecom New Zealand is a New Zealand-wide communications service provider , providing fixed line telephone services, a mobile network, an internet service provider , a major ICT provider to NZ businesses , and a wholesale network infrastructure provider to other NZ CSPs...
closed the part of their CDMA 3G mobile data network known as EVDO (previously also known as T3G).
After lengthy internal and corporate trials, the XT Network was launched to the public on 29 May 2009, at 7:30am.
New Features
With the launch of the XT network, a number of new services were available to subscribers, including Prepaid roaming, video calls, Mobile TV, and high-speed internet access.Launch
On 27 April 2009, Telecom announced that the new XT Mobile network would launch on 13 May 2009 at 6:30pm.However, a Vodafone New Zealand
Vodafone New Zealand
Vodafone New Zealand is a British owned telecommunications company, a subsidiary of Vodafone Plc operating in New Zealand. It is New Zealand's largest mobile phone operator, based in Auckland, New Zealand and was formed in 1998, after Vodafone purchased BellSouth's New Zealand operations...
and Telecom dispute about Network Interference pushed the date to 29 May.
In May 2009, Vodafone sued Telecom, accusing it of interfering with their network, using the same frequency bands as their existing 3G network. However, Telecom had said it is working with Vodafone to resolve the issues and was surprised by that company's decision to go legal. A decision was made between the two companies to increase the filtering of the network, with neither company stating who was footing the bill
December 2009
On Monday, 14 December 2009 at approximately 4:30am, the Telecom XT Mobile Network went down for the majority of people who live south of TaupoTaupo
Taupo is a town on the shore of Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the seat of the Taupo District Council and lies in the southern Waikato Region....
for eight hours (although there were claims of issues slightly before this time). Telecom said a technical fault, affecting a Christchurch-based technology component that was installed to fix a prior fault, had caused the loss of mobile service, including voice, SMS, and mobile broadband
At approximately 7am the day of the Network Crash, Telecom published a statement via Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
saying: "We are having some issues with XT sites South of Taupo, Technical teams are working on restoring service" and more than an hour later, also published via Twitter "XT sites south of Taupo have no coverage, currently a Severity 1 Fault being worked on to get service restored asap."
The older CDMA network was not affected during the outage of the XT network.
The network was fully restored by approximately 5:00pm the same day.
January 2010
On Wednesday, 27 January 2010 around mid-morning, the Telecom XT Mobile Network once again crashed affecting approximately 100,000 customers south of TaupoTaupo
Taupo is a town on the shore of Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the seat of the Taupo District Council and lies in the southern Waikato Region....
. The crash was believed to be caused by similar circumstances as the late 2009 crash. This was fixed for many users within around 7 hours, however many areas including Queenstown, Timaru, Dunedin and Invercargill had still not been restored as of Thursday 28 January 2010 at 7pm, with some users experiencing up to 3 days without service in some areas. This second network crash in two months caused a considerable public uproar and raised serious questions about the credibility of Telecom and its XT Network.
February 2010
Another outage affected the lower south of the North Island on 16 and 17 February and affected subscribers south of Taupo.On 22 February about 5.30pm, Telecom said "We are currently experiencing some issues with our XT Mobile network which may mean some customers south of Taupo (including South Island) are having problems using Mobile services. This may include making/receiving calls, sending/receiving text messages and using Mobile Broadband services. We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing. We are working hard to resolve the issue and will continue to update this message as we learn more. This message was updated on Monday 22 February at 8:15pm."
Advertising
Before and immediately after launch the XT mobile network was promoted by 3 advertisements hosted by Richard HammondRichard Hammond
Richard Mark Hammond is an English broadcaster, writer, and journalist most noted for co-hosting car programme Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, as well as presenting Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky 1.-Early life:...
, and following this was an advert featuring stuntwoman/actress Zoë Bell
Zoë Bell
Zoë E. Bell is a stuntwoman and actress from New Zealand. Some of her most notable stunt work includes doubling for Lucy Lawless on Xena: Warrior Princess and for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. As an actress, she has appeared both on television and in feature films and also starred in the web series...
, advertising speed and roaming capabilities.
Telecom claim the XT Network to be "Faster in more places" than any other mobile network in New Zealand, including competitor Vodafone and start-up 2degrees; these claims are backed by independent testing commissioned by Telecom, as well as testing undertaken by technology commentator Chris Keall of The National Business Review (NBR). Current (2011) advertising material proclaims the network to reach "97% of places Kiwis live and work".
As of 2011 the exact meaning of "XT" remains unknown to the public, as even Telecom's website fails to address this anomaly. An independent news website featured a "Q&A" having questions submitted by the public and answers from Telecom representatives, and one of the questions asked addressed this: "What time on friday will the network launch? What does XT stand for? XTra? tXT? eXTraordinary? Xtra Telecom?". The network's response only addressed the first part of the question: "The official XT Launch time is 07:30 29 May 2009."
Competitors
Telecom has two competitors in the New Zealand market.Vodafone New Zealand
Vodafone New Zealand
Vodafone New Zealand is a British owned telecommunications company, a subsidiary of Vodafone Plc operating in New Zealand. It is New Zealand's largest mobile phone operator, based in Auckland, New Zealand and was formed in 1998, after Vodafone purchased BellSouth's New Zealand operations...
which operates a GSM 900/1800 network since 1993 and a WCDMA 2100 MHz network since 2005. Vodafone, in response to Telecom's "Faster In More Places" claim, had constructed a nation-wide WCDMA 900 MHz network in areas where they did not already have an existing 2100 MHz network. Vodafone also controls 66% of the market.
2degrees
2degrees
2degrees is a U.S. and British owned mobile phone provider operating in New Zealand with 580,112 customers . They launched on 5 August 2009 after 9 years of planning. 2degrees currently offers prepaid and pay monthly mobile services...
, a recent start-up, currently operates a GSM 900/1800 EDGE network and WCDMA 2100 network.