Vodafone NZ to rebrand as One New Zealand in early 2023

Vodafone NZ has announced a significant rebrand, with the company announcing it is changing its name to One New Zealand in early 2023.

This follows the recent change of ownership from Vodafone Group to new owners Infratil and Brookfield in 2019.

In the last few years, the company has been shown to overhaul the way it sells and serves, bringing most of its call centres back home to New Zealand while also forming local teams of experts and bringing all its retail stores under full ownership. 

It has also been upgrading its legacy technology to make it easier for teams to help customers. 

Jason Paris, Vodafone New Zealand CEO, says that One New Zealand will strive to become world-famous for its service, dedicated to providing more locals helping locals, and great service where and when needed, in stores, via call centres, or online.

"We are going from eight letters to three, and we are keeping our strong partner market relationship with Vodafone, so our customers will continue to benefit from that via access to global roaming, IoT (Internet of Things) platform, security and network technology solutions for the business and consumer market," he says.

"This is much more than just a name change; it is the icing on the cake. Three years ago, we moved from global to local to focus 100% on New Zealand, and since then we have been laying the foundations to serve Aotearoa long into the future. Now, it is time to take the next step. To become One New Zealand. One team of over 3,000 employees, with one focus on one country and on one goal, to unlock the magic of technology to create an awesome Aotearoa."

The company says it has spent close to a billion dollars on improving the Smart Network. Part of this process has included being the first to launch a 5G mobile network in New Zealand (after being the first to deliver 3G and 4G) and rolling this latest technology out to dozens of cities and towns around Aotearoa. 

They have also upgraded wireless broadband and HFC (Hybrid Fibre Coaxial) services and delivered advanced fibre broadband options across the country.

To coincide with the announcement of One New Zealand, the company is also announcing some new initiatives, including One Good Kiwi, a digital charity platform through which One New Zealand will donate $1.2 million a year to worthy causes that are making positive change for rangatahi. 

There was also the announcement of One Plan, which will give customers the freedom to use data however and whenever they want. 

Also, from today, Vodafone New Zealand is offering its business customers an upgrade to an enhanced security package with Microsoft with no added cost.

Paris says that current Vodafone NZ customers will not have to do anything, but the positive effects of the change will slowly start to emerge leading up to the 2023 launch.

"We cannot wait to help more New Zealanders do amazing things in the future, and we have a lot more plans up our sleeve to share in coming months," he says

"For now, customers will not need to do anything different at all, we will continue to operate as Vodafone New Zealand until the change happens, but in the meantime, expect to see a lot more proof of the changes that One New Zealand will bring."