Telecom NZ to switch on 4G LTE network

Telecom New Zealand is to switch on 4G LTE services in three cities from midnight tonight, becoming the second telco in the country to launch a next-generation mobile network.

The services will be available in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Telecom's launch follows that of Vodafone NZ, which fired up its own commercial LTE service in February this year.

The incumbent has been trialling LTE since December last year, with a network being built by Huawei and Ericsson.

Initially running in the 1800MHz frequency band, the frequency division LTE network will be extended to use 700MHz spectrum, which Telecom acquired management rights for in a New Zealand government auction recently.

The network is Category 4 LTE, with theoretical maximum download speeds of 150Mbps, and 50Mbps on the uplink. 

Telecom said that it has 18 4G-capable devices for sale to use on the network, with two Cat 4 ones that can take advantage of the higher peak speeds the service offers.

While the 4G service won't carry additional charges for customers, they will need new SIM cards to be able to register to use it. 

The telco said on-contract and prepay customers will be able to use its national Wi-Fi network including 750 hotspots built into phone booths for no additional cost, with a data cap of one gigabyte a day for that wireless service.