Telecom’s 4G service will be initially available in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on November 12, and stands to rival Vodafone New Zealand’s 4G service launched earlier this year.
Vodafone NZ first trialled its 4G services in Lake Brumner in April, and has been steadily deploying the service across the country. Palmerston North received the upgrade in August this year.
Telecom’s service will use spectrum in the 1800MHz band and is expected to allow a more efficient deployment of mobile cloud services.
Chris Quin, CEO of Telecom NZ Retail, said: “Whether they are shopping online, streaming music or making stutter-free video calls to family and friends, 4G will allow our customers to do a whole lot more, a whole lot faster on their mobile devices. 4G is part of our vision to help Kiwis have experiences that once seemed impossible.”
The company said it began trialling the LTE service in December last year, in partnerships with Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei. Alcatel-Lucent reportedly ran a trial in the Lower Hutt area of Wellington, while Huawei ran trials in parts of the North Shore, both on the 2600MHz spectrum.
Telecom’s 4G service will include Wifi, and be offered as a free upgrade to prepaid and pay-monthly Telecom customers.
David Havercroft, COO at Telecom NZ, said: “Telecom’s decision to make its 4G network freely available to all of its customers is another significant step towards providing an integrated network of fibre, 3G, 4G and Wifi that will deliver the rich, relevant, real-time experiences and instant access to information today’s consumers and businesses increasingly expect.”
