Kudos to Telecom NZ, Nov 16

Telecom New Zealand recently introduced its 3G wireless data network (beating Vodafone NZ to the punch), and is once again hungry for customer adoption. Yesterday I traded in my GTRANS wireless data card (that I'd signed up for in August 04 ... for NZ$100 per month for 100 MB of traffic ... and the card was free) for a Sierra Wireless 580 data card at $60 per month for 100 MB of traffic. The card was "free", since I signed up for a new 24 month contract at the point of migration.

Why kudos? (1) Both cards were "free" to acquire ... although I committed myself to a term contract. I liked the sense of freedom to shift, without a high overhead cost of buying the card outright. Telecom rightly understands that my value to them as a customer will be derived by a long term data relationship. (2) The price went down for faster data speeds and the same volume. I can dig that. And (3) ... the card gives me an awesome degree of freedom to roam between client and vendor visits without having to beg for network access.