Vodafone to start home-zone service in New Zealand

Vodafone New Zealand has got the go-ahead from the New Zealand Commerce Commission to make calls from Vodafones at PSTN rates. The users of the mobile phone will be assigned a local number and using this number the customers can make calls at PSTN rates when they are in or around the home.

The users will have the facility to make a call form the same location as well as receive a call from the same location. In order to set up the home-zone service, Vodafone requires an interconnection agreement from Telecom New Zealand for local calls between Vodafone local numbers and Telecom’s fixed PSTN. Currently, Vodafone does not have this agreement.

Vodafone had filed an application for establishing the agreement to allow access for the interconnection with Telecom's fixed PSTN. The commission has now reached a conclusion saying that Telecom and Vodafone should exchange local calls at a reciprocal price of zero in accordance with the 'pure bill and keep' pricing method.

Vodafone Germany was the first company which started this service for which the agreement is necessary. The service was then called Vodafone ZuHause Zone and it was launched in mid 2005. Using this service, users can make local and national calls at a price of $US24 per month from their home-zone. Home zone is the user's local plus the cells near the user's cell and in reality, this would come to around 2 kilometers.

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Vodafone to start home-zone service in New Zealand