$10 TXT Guaranteed

30 April 2004

MEDIA RELEASE

$10 TXT Guaranteed

Telecom's $10 TXT is being guaranteed until at least 31 December 2004 and will cover up to 500 national person-to-person texts per month.

This means that Telecom customers can send up to 500 texts per month and pay only $10 compared with paying $100 per month for the same number of texts on other networks.

(Please see the box on page two of this release)

Telecom Mobile General Manager Kevin Kenrick said people are wary of short-term offers that appear to promise much but are of little real value to customers.

"$10 TXT has been incredibly successful and people have been asking 'but how long will it last?'" Mr Kenrick said.

"We want to demonstrate that we're very serious about continuing to provide by far the best value in texting in New Zealand," he said.

$10 TXT was launched in August 2003 and has led to a 400% increase in text messaging by Telecom customers in the last six months alone.

"Few pricing initiatives in telecommunications have ever led to this type of growth. The launch of $10 TXT will be seen as pivotal a development in texting as the introduction of the $5 Weekend was in landline calling in the early 1990s," Mr Kenrick said.

The increased texting reflects a combination of more people texting and greater texting frequency per customer.

Mr Kenrick said the cap was deliberately set at a level high enough to ensure it affected as few customers as possible. Currently only around 10% of Telecom customers text more than this level per month.

A *333 feature has been added that enables customers to check how many text messages they have sent up to a certain day and time.

These changes will take effect from 1 May 2004 for new customers and 1 June 2004 for existing customers.

The best value texting - by far
With 027, you will pay 20 cents for 50 text messages up to the value of $10, and receive 450 text messages free. Each text beyond the first 500 costs 20 cents. $10 TXT applies to person-to-person national text messages. Receiving a text message remains free. International texting and roaming are not included in the $10 TXT offer.

ENDS

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