10 facts about 2Degrees

1. 2degrees has built 435 cellsites in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown (by contrast Vodafone has  1069 sites).

2. When customers are outside the four centres in which 2degrees has its own cellsites their calls will be handled on the  Vodafone network (customers should not notice the difference).

3. 2degrees customers can roam to 21 countries for the same calling rates as in New Zealand.

4. It's taken nine years for the company to launch its services into the market.

5. 2degrees is the company's third name – previously it was called New Zealand Communications and before that  Econet.

6. 2degrees is part owned by the Hautaki Trust – it operates under the radio spectrum given to Maori as part of the Treaty settlements.

7. The majority shareholder is a company called Trilogy International Partners which is based in Washington and owns mobile networks in Haiti, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic.

8. A month before it launched 2degrees changed its Chief Executive – both were appointed by Trilogy.

9. It has cost $250 million to build the network to date (by contrast Telecom spent $524 million on its XT Network).

10. When 2degrees sought out comedian Rhys Darby to front their advertising campaign they called his Mum and asked her for his phone number.