Orcon launches mobile, promises shake-up

Orcon has entered the mobile market with a commitment to no fixed-term contracts.

As of today, the company has introduced four plans at rates from $0.39 per minute and a text rate of $0.20. Customers can bring their existing mobile number to the new service or get a new 020 Orcon number.

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

All call centre services are being provided by Orcon in New Zealand and the network is being provided by Vodafone.

CEO Scott Bartlett said, “Orcon has a deserved reputation for shaking up what is a pretty tired and conservative telecoms market here in New Zealand – we did that with LLU (local loop unbundling) and also with nofixed term contracts broadband.

“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 says.

The Purple Mobile plan has no monthly fee and a flat rate $0.69 per minute. Sixty- (Silver), 120- (Gold) and 180-minute (Platinum) plans are available at $29.95, $49.95 and $69.95 per month respectively.

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. Minute-and-second billing applies to all plans while voicemail costs 20 cents

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.