2degrees customer numbers climbing

The introduction of business services has helped 2degrees achieve almost 50% growth in user numbers since their last update in March.

After two and a half years on the market, 2degrees now has 875,656 customers, compared with 580,111 eleven months ago.

The company's team has grown to 545, mostly due to the proliferation of retail stores.

2degrees CEO Eric Hertz says it's 'extremely rewarding' to see the company's efforts deliver results.

"Individual consumers and businesses have joined us in the past year because they value service, easy-to-understand pricing and coverage to 97% of New Zealand," Hertz says.

The release from the company adds that 275,000 of the network's customers have come directly from other networks, 'porting' their existing number to 2degrees. This figure has gone up 75,000 since the previous update in July.

As for the competition, Vodafone is thought to have around 2.434 million customers, while Telecom has 2.079 million. Both have been losing ground, although Telecom recently launched its new 'Skinny' sub-brand, which could attract some low-end customers back to the fold.