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by Phillip Pearson.
Original Post: What I'd like to see from Vodafone (or Telecom) in NZ
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In New Zealand we have two main mobile providers: Vodafone and Telecom. Telecom is NZ-owned, and Vodafone is from overseas. Telecom's image is very corporate, while Vodafone's is more "fun" - perhaps "younger". I had assumed that Telecom was a much bigger company than Vodafone, but it seems that it's the other way around - Vodafone is a big international company with deep pockets, whereas Telecom, despite having a near-monopoly on fixed phone lines in NZ, is actually much smaller.
Enough history...
Both companies have come out with phones and networks that let you do some sort of primitive 'net access from your phone. My phone, a Siemens MC60, lets you access the 'net via GPRS. Not particularly quick (probably because the phone's OS is so slow and clunky), but it does let you read proper HTML pages. I can browse to my to-do list on the Topic Exchange OK, but scrolling up and down is painful.
It really seems that web sites have to be completely aimed at mobile users for them to be any use. But - what's the motivation? Mobile users have to pay - like $10/megabyte! - for the data they use to talk to your site, and there are lots of other turnoffs: slow speed, slow navigation, small screen size.
What I'd like to see would be some sort of revenue-sharing arrangement from Vodafone or Telecom that would pay you some of what they take in in data fees when mobile users access your site. This is good for everyone: it encourages usage, so the phone company benefits, and it encourages people to make mobile sites, so the users benefit.
If it could be run so that anybody could make a site - with no joining fee, or perhaps a minimal one - it would encourage every man and his dog to get out there and make stuff, and everyone profits. Very "long tail".
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