(New Zealand Press Association via NewsEdge) New Zealand Telecom plans to spend up to $400 million to switch its mobile network to technology used by competitor Vodafone, local media reported.
New Zeland Telecom was about to announce a deal with Alcatel-Lucent to build a GSM network costing $300 million to $400 million, local paper Communications Day reported.
The carrier would keep its current CDMA network for high-speed data services and voice calling as it moved customers to the new network, the report said.
Vodafone uses GSM technology for its 021 network.
New Zealand Telecom spokesman Mark Watts would not comment on the possibility of a deal with Alcatel Lucent.
"No deal has been announced. There's speculation around it and I'm not going to add to it,'' The New Zealand Herald quoted the executive as saying.
The speculation adds spice to an appearance of the carrier's soon-to-retire chief executive Theresa Gattung at a Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand conference in Wellington
© 2007 New Zealand Press Association
© 2007 Dialog, a Thomson business. All rights reserved