Those of you that have got your iPhone 4 today and have decided to take it across to Telecom maybe wondering why your voicemail button isn’t working even though you have a V3 SIM or a MicroSIM.

Hit the read more to see what you need to do (it’s easy by the way)

So for those that don’t know this, if you have an iPhone 4 or you’re running an iPhone on iOS4 and are using it on XT your voicemail button likely doesn’t work. There is an easy fix for this, but it does require you to have a V3 SIM or a Micro SIM.

When iOS 4 first came out and XT only had V2 SIMs you had to dial the number or save it as a favourite. Well now on their V3 and Micro SIMs you can get the voicemail button working.

You need to go back to the old trick of dialling *5005*86*083210# then hitting send. The screen will very briefly flash and you are done. This has now stored the number on the SIM card and next time you go to use the voicemail button it will now work.

Full Steps:

Click on your iPhone’s

…

TELECOM IS READY FOR IPHONE 4 USERS

Telecom‚s XT Mobile Network offers Apple iPhone users 3G services and
speeds across the country along with competitive prices on mobile data
plans.

From today, Telecom is offering Smartphone users the opportunity to double
their data for the next 3 months when they sign up to our new 500 megabyte
Smartphone Extra.

This means customers can add 1GB of data and 2500 text messages for $38
per month to any prepaid or postpaid voice plan on XT until the end of

…

For all those that have been holding out for your Telecom XT MicroSIM, as of Monday you will wait no more.

We have just received confirmation from Telecom that the MicroSIMs will be available from Monday 26th July, but there will be limited stocks available.

Hit the read more for details of pricing.

MicroSIMs can be used on either prepaid or postpaid however depending on stock levels postpaid will take priority.

The pricing for MicroSIMs will be exactly the same as the standard SIM pricing. Prepaid $29.95 and Postpaid $19.95 *but* on an open term postpaid 500MB plan, XT customers can get a FREE MicroSIM.

You will need to contact your local store on Monday to check if they have availability.

And in case you are not sure who to choose…. aside from pricing check out the coverage on XT compared to Vodafone.

FYI Vodafone’s ‘extended 3G’ runs over 900MHz which the iPad cannot receive, so in these areas you will drop down to GPRS (2G) speeds when running on Vodafone. XT’s 3G network uses iPad-compatible frequencies everywhere it broadcasts, so you you will get much better speeds out…

Telecom have quietly rolled out three new Mobile Broadband plans today. This is not just an announcement to announce the announcement, these are available from today and for the heavy mobile data user may just come in handy. Hit the read more for the detail.

The new plans aim to bridge the gap between the current postpaid and prepaid offerings. Prior to today if you were a postpaid customer then there was nothing less than a 2GB plan and for prepaid nothing more than 500MB. This gap has now been filled with the introduction of a 500MB postpaid plan and a 2GB and 4GB prepaid plan.

The prices don’t seem too bad to be fair. They may look expensive but in comparison to what we currently have it’s not *that* bad. For prepaid users you can quadruple your usage from 500MB to 2GB for only double the price. Now that’s not a bad deal. Don’t get me wrong I know mobile data prices are high in this country, but that is still a fair deal under the current pricing options.

Here’s the full break down of the new pricing:

Prepaid

…

When iOS 4 was released to developers in beta form, the first thing we did was get to work on getting our bundles to work. Unfortunately, as you may have heard, we were unsuccessful and it meant that users lost their fancy carrier icons and the ability to use their voicemail button. Well, in an interesting turn it seems that users on XT may soon regain the functionality of that button.

After we made the carrier bundle announcement there were comments from some readers who were telling us that their voicemail button was still working and they were on 2degrees. We ran some tests of our own and found that yes, it was true. But why would it work on 2degrees and not on XT? We wondered if it may have something to do with how the voicemail information is loaded onto the SIM but we were un-sure.

We asked some questions and it turns out it is the SIM card causing the problem. Within the database tables on all SIM cards is a field called ‘MBDN’ which stores the voicemail information and the Telecom XT SIM cards don’t have this info loaded. …

After all of the outages on XT, Telecom have now relaunched their advertising campaign for XT which has been fronted by Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds.

They have also launched a “customer-friendly 30 day Risk Free Trial” which will enable users who sign up to an eligible 24 month plan when purchasing any XT mobile or Mobile Broadband T-Stick, to return the product within 30 days if they are not completely happy with their experience of XT – and receive a refund.

In this honest and comical ad Dr Reynolds confirms that XT is now finally fixed, saying “I reckon you should give XT a shot,  it’s now working exactly as it should’ve done” and he pokes a bit of fun at Telecom which (although I’m sure some who were affected won’t find funny) is quite amusing and gives it the personal touch.

Hit the read more for the full media release and video of the ad.

Press Release

NEW XT CUSTOMERS CAN JOIN RISK FREE

Telecom has resumed full XT Mobile marketing activity with today’s
introduction of a customer-friendly 30 day Risk Free Trial.

Customers who sign up to an eligible 24 month plan when purchasing

…

Earlier in the year we reported that Digital Island was the first MVNO to sign with Telecom to use their now-wholesaled XT network. Today, two more contenders join the market as Mobile Virtual Network Operators from XT.

Cogent Zintel and NZ-new Telcoinabox are the two freshest faces on the XT wholesale scene. Both, similar to Digital Island, will be targeting businesses and enterprises with plans most likely tailored to them.

A MVNO, or Mobile Virtual Network Operator is a cell phone network provider whom do not own any equipment or infastructure themselves. Instead, it is leased off a provider who does – say Telecom or Vodafone. It appears like they are a new company (hence the word ‘virtual’), but they are really just re-branding what’s already available.

iPhones will be compatible with all 3 networks which will mean some exciting opportunities opening up shortly for businesses who deploy them.

Both newcomers will launch 3G mobile services to their customers in July, with DigitalIsland already up and running.

So we finally got our hands on an iPad 3G, we are still waiting for ours to arrive, and we can now give you the details of setting it up to use on XT and how to create your very own MicroSIM.

Read on for the full detail and PDF guide…

So our choice of network for our iPhones is XT, therefore it is only natural that our choice for the iPad would be XT as well. Why do we use XT and not Vodafone? On Vodafone , due to the frequencies of the iPad (and iPhone) you will only have 2G services outside of the main centres, you maybe in the Vodafone camp, but personally the speeds you get on XT can’t be beaten.

The first thing we need to do is go through the legal stuff, sorry but we have to.

1. If you ruin your SIM whilst cutting it up, don’t blame us
2. If you ruin your iPad (or any part of it) whilst installing the SIM or using the SIM in it, don’t blame us
3. If you cut yourself whilst cutting up the SIM, don’t blame us
4. You follow the guide below at your own risk,

…

Telecom have announced via Twitter that they are soon to support the new Micro SIM standard. This means that the upcoming 3G iPad and unconfirmed ‘iPhone 4G’ will be compatible with Telecom’s XT network.

A Micro SIM is exactly what it sounds like – a smaller version of the conventional SIM card which tells your phone information about your carrier and account in order to make your device functional. These SIMs are not compatible with the conventional SIM ports and vice versa.

Apple have recently taken up the standard, sporting it in the unreleased 3G iPad. What is perhaps more exciting is that the new iPhone also uses this standard. This is good news for all iDevice fans who wish to use the XT network.

Details on the release and availability of the new SIMs will be announced at a later date when delivery has been confirmed.

Vodafone, rival of Telecom, have been stocking Micro SIMs for some time now.

iPhonewzealand and Geekzone user Ahmad has repeated his speed tests he did last year in Dunedin using the iPhone on XT and Vodafone.

Data speeds on the iPhone, between Vodafone and XT, are a much discussed topic. There are many different sides of the story and many different reasons behind the results of speed tests. I would suggest that everyone take from this just a view to Ahmad’s experience at the given time in the given location. Some of you may have different experiences and speeds so it would be good to hear your thoughts.

Personally for me the XT speeds, where I use my iPhone, are much faster than that of Vodafone but that is not to say that other areas where you may use it won’t be different.

For a full breakdown head over to Ahmad’s Blog buttonmasher.co.nz to check out the results. As you will see Telecom’s XT still comes out on top, but it does make for an interesting read.

Tests were conducted between 12pm and 3pm on Tuesday 16 March at four locations scattered across the Dunedin central city. After discussion with an anonymous blog commenter

…

Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds has fronted-up to journalists at a press conference this afternoon over last night’s further XT outage, and the situation as a whole. He said that the company recognises the inconvenience that customers have been put to and announced a further compensation package for both consumer and business XT customers. An angry Reynolds spoke of how he feels “let down” by network operator Alcatel-Lucent, that “enough is enough” and that the company have been “put on notice” following this fourth outage. Hit ‘read more’ for the full press release.

23 February 2010

Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds this afternoon announced a range of significant measures aimed at restoring customers’ faith in XT following a series of major and unacceptable outages for tens of thousands of customers in recent weeks.

He also announced significant changes to the way in which the XT network will be managed, as a result of the unacceptable level of service.

“For too many of our customers, we have not lived up to the promises we made about XT when the network was launched,” Dr Reynolds said.

“So that’s why we are taking action on a broad range of fronts, covering the operation and

…

After all the issues with XT and with Alcatel-Lucent’s Head of New Zealand Business resigning is it just coincidence that Frank Mount, Telecom CTO, has just resigned?

Frank Mount’s bio from the Telecom site:

As Chief Transformation Officer, Frank is responsible for driving the company’s transformation for long-term growth and delivering Telecom’s new generation of world-class services to our customers in new and innovative ways. He’s well equipped to do this with an impressive track record in senior leadership roles at some of the world’s leading telecommunications companies. After starting his career at AT&T, where he stayed for 20 years, Frank has since worked for T-Mobile, Cable & Wireless, US Cable, Primus Communications and Viatel Inc. Frank has an extensive knowledge of the full spectrum of telecommunications and IP technologies. Frank was educated in Europe and the USA in moderns, classics and sciences and has a degree in mathematics and IT from Mercy College, New York.

The press release:

Telecom has today announced that Frank Mount, its CTO, has resigned.

The resignation was accepted by Paul Reynolds this morning and is effective immediately.

“In the interests of our customers, our team and New Zealand, I have regretfully accepted Frank’s

…

Well folks, we have done it! You can now Tether on 3.1.3 with our carrier bundles for XT and 2degrees again! Happy times!!

Finally all the users waiting to update to the latest firmware but couldn’t because they needed Tethering can now do so. And the best bit. All you need to do is download and install the new bundle. No restoring, no separate configuration files. One all-in-one solution.

I have to say and I would like you all to say (in the comments below) a HUGE thanks to iPhonewzealand user DBMandrake who provided us with the solution. Without his help this would not have been possible.

Vodafone users who want a custom logo….. sorry but this is not an option for you if you want Tethering. We are not supporting custom bundles for Vodafone as they are not really needed anymore as they are only really there for a logo.

We have also slimmed down our options for Carrier Bundles. You now have one choice with the logo for both XT and 2Degrees. Previously you could have text, or logo but this is too much to update and maintain when there are changes.

To get the…

After the major outage suffered by XT users last week (27th Jan-30th Jan), Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds has this morning announced the compensation ‘Goodwill gesture’ they will be offering customers that were affected south of Taupo.

Here’s the main points:

Customers whose service was degraded on Wednesday 27 January:

• Prepaid consumer customers – $10 credit
• Postpaid consumer customers – One week’s worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages>
• Telecom Retail SME customers and Gen-i corporate customers – Two weeks’ worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages

Customers whose service was severely impacted for up to three days between Wednesday 27 January and 10pm Friday 29 January:

• Prepaid consumer customers – $20 credit
• Postpaid consumer customers – Two weeks’ worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages
• Telecom Retail SME customers and Gen-i corporate customers – Four weeks’ worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages

Donation to lower South Island communities:

In recognition of the particular disruption caused in the lower South Island by the…

Dr Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom New Zealand, will front media and staff today with a finalised announcement for XT compensation.

Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said the CEO would reveal their plans to compensate users affected by the recent outage. The location for the press conference, Dunedin, was chosen to recognise that the lower South Island was worst hit.

The venue for the event has yet to be finalised, but Telecom staff have said it will be at the Art Gallery at 2pm.

I myself will attempt to attend the conference, and if successful (they are letting the public attend), will be live tweeting and perhaps Ustreaming the event. Unfortunately, the event is limited to media and staff only.

Details of the compensation will be posted on iPhonewzealand shortly after.

Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds announced today that in addition to capacity and design improvements already being worked on, he has commissioned an independent review on the XT network.
“XT has grown extremely rapidly to serve hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders. I am angry at the recent outages that have affected parts of the network, including one this morning,” Dr Reynolds said.

“I apologise to our customers who have been inconvenienced, but also recognise that words are not enough. That’s why we are taking rapid action and I am determined to be up front and open with our loyal XT customers on this.

“XT is built as a world-class network but clearly it should not have had these problems.

“With our technology and operations partner Alcatel-Lucent, we have already been working on capacity and design improvements to protect customers.

“I have today commissioned an urgent and independent review to ensure we have taken all reasonable steps to assure customer experience.

“As we continue to implement the improvements already identified, we expect customers to see a much improved performance in XT,” Dr Reynolds said.

As if once wasn’t enough, it appears Telecom’s new XT mobile network is experiencing more downtime. Outages have been reported in Wellington, Christchurch, Oamaru and Dunedin.

Telecom, when contacted by iPhonewzealand user damnelectric, stated that the outage was “only affecting some customers” and could not give a timeframe for when a fix could be implemented.

We will edit this post with any updates.

This is not the first time XT has had a major outage. Just last month, there was a major outage affecting all XT users south of Taupo.

Tip: to conserve battery on your iPhone, put it into Airplane mode. This will stop it constantly searching for service.

Update (11:40am): Telecom has announced on their Twitter account that the outage is affecting XT customers south of Rotorua. Technicians are investigating. It is a high priority.

Update (11:51am): Outage details have been updated, with it affecting users south of Taupo (rather than Rotorua).

Update (12:43pm): Telecom have tweeted that the outage should be fixed by 1pm.

Update (2:13pm): The issue is reportedly resolved with some cell sites still being worked on, well over an hour after the original restore time.

Got no service on your iPhone this morning? Telecom has tweeted confirmation this morning that they are aware of issues that are affecting areas south of Taupo and that engineers are working to restore service. Until then, enjoy a foggy and unwanted reminder of what life was like pre-iPhone… it’s not nice!

[Update 1:20pm] Many people are reporting that they have coverage again, including us.

As you may be aware we don’t support jailbreaking here at iPhonezealand so you may be asking why we are posting about this? Well we do support our Carrier Bundles and a number of people have been asking about lost carrier logos after they have jailbroken. Hopefully this post will give you a heads up about how you can resolve the issue.

iPhonewzealand user Mak came across the issue after jailbreaking 3.1.

Recently after updating my iPhone to version 3.1 (via the new version of PwnageTool by the Dev-Team), I noticed my custom XT carrier logo had disappeared. After a bit of searching and IRCing, I found the solution. The issue lies with the way the phone interprets the carrier.plist file inside a carrier bundle

So how do you fix it? You need to edit the carrier.plist file that is located in the carrier bundle for your provider. Hit up the link below to head over to Mak’s site [mak.geek.nz] to find out how.

A quick heads-up. The new OS 3.1, launched this morning, will break tethering for XT and 2degrees users. Do not download it if you require tethering, but go right ahead and update if you don’t.

What’s happened?…Apple now signs the apn’s within the carrier bundles. This means if there is no signature against the Tethering APN it will not work (all other functionality is fine though). We are working on a fix for this and as soon as we have it the bundles will be updated and we’ll let you know.

In the interests of easier comparison of New Zealand’s now three mobile networks, iPhonewzealand user Ahmad has created a table which should allow deciphering of the mobile plans to be easier than the Da Vinci code. The table covers prepaid plans only, which is 2degrees’s main focus at launch, and heavier users of mobile phone may be able to find a better deal going on account.
The cost of each network’s SIM cards is not factored into this comparison as prices for these SIMs vary. 2degrees are offering essentially free SIMs at $2 or $20 with those respective amounts preloaded, with a “porting number” bonus of $5 if you are coming over from another network. XT “charges” $30 for their SIMs but this comes with up to $20 credit. And Vodafone has kept the $30 SIM card cost the same, but have recently started running promotions which offer over $30 value in various packages.

As you will see, there are 2 columns each for XT and 2degrees. This is to allow for fairer comparison of the true ongoing running costs of a prepaid mobile on each of our 3 networks. While the published…

Hey folks,

Just in case any of you XT users want them, here are a couple of the stock wallpapers found on the new XT handsets. I’m sure you know how to add them as wallpapers but just in case….Instructions:

• Navigate to/open this page from your Safari on your iPhone
• Tap and Hold image
• From pop up choose ‘Save Image’
• Close Safari and go to Settings>>Wallpaper>>Camera Roll and select the image.

Done

Here are the files you need if you want to optimise your experience on the XT Network. The iPhone will work on XT without these however it makes life easier. Please note that these files are for firmware 3.1.3 only and are no longer being supported.

For users on 4.0 or above please see here for the manual settings.

Firmware 3.1.3 Only:

Once loaded the file will do the following:

• Enable Data
• Enable Tethering (using your iPhone as a mobile broadband modem)
• Enable MMS (picture messaging)
• Enable Voicemail Button (to call voicemail)
• Update Taskbar Logo

With XT Logo

Install Instructions

Please download the zip file below for your OS which contains everything you need to install the Carrier Bundle. Contained in the ZIP file there are PDF’s of the instructions, the carrier bundle, and an AppleScript/Command Script to automatically Fix iTunes.

Mac User.zip / PDF Only
PC User.zip / PDF Only

Video Tutorials
If you have any trouble following our guide, or are curious to see the process involved please watch either of the below video tutorials, depending on whether you…

Telecom’s new XT Network, a 100% 3G network operating at 850Mhz in 97% of the places that New Zealanders live, work and play, was practically built to support the iPhone. It’s specs match the Jesus phone perfectly, leaving Vodafone’s network support for the device looking shakey at best. So it’s only natural that users have been holding their breaths waiting for Telecom to announce official support for the iPhone, and placing a crucial second offer on the table for would-be or existing iPhone users.

Despite tempting us with promises early-on of being in “deep discussion” with Apple over the iPhone, Telecom refused to provide anything more solid even in the weeks and days leading up to the official New Zealand launch of the new 3GS device on July 10th. On July 14th, however, Telecom surprised everyone by playing a cheeky wild card that has no doubt had Vodafone scrambling for their lawyers – Telecom are offering iPhone owners a $600 account credit when they sign up to a OneRate 180 plan for 24months, plus throwing in 240MB of data each month for the life of the contract.

OneRate 180 is priced at $79.95 and as the name suggests gives users…