It’s worth reading the report – at least for your industry.

“At June 2010, there were approximately 3.5 million mobile broadband services in operation, an increase of 71 per cent since June 2009.”

“The number of mobile telephone services increased by only one per cent in the same period (from 22.2 million to 22.5 million).”

“Telstra reported that the number of its PSTN lines had decreased by 358,000 over the year to June 2010″

“…and it estimated as many as 12 per cent of households are now ‘mobile only’ for voice, up from around eight per cent a year ago”

“Financial results for 2009–10 show that all mobile operators have enjoyed significant increases in data revenue. Telstra recorded non-messaging data revenue (handheld devices) increases of 21 per cent, VHA reported data and non-voice service revenue increases of 43 per cent and Optus reported that mobile services were a key contributor to growth, with mobile revenue accounting for 63 per cent of total company total revenue during 2009–10″

“Research undertaken by Gartner, indicates that the number of mobile application downloads will grow from 2.5 million in 2009 to a predicted 21.6 million in 2013.” (Actually Apple iTunes right now shows overall app downloads approaching 10 Billion, so Gartner’s headline of “Over 50 Billion Applications Downloads Generating Over $72 Billion From 2008 Through 2013″ is already well out of date. Overall those Australian numbers seem highly anemic.)

“… 27 per cent of adult internet users in Australia identified the internet as their most trusted source of news and information, in comparison to 20 per cent for newspapers, 17 per cent for television and 12 per cent of internet users identifying the radio as their most trusted source of news and information.”

“..only 39 per cent of adult internet users in Australia described newspapers as an important or very important source of information, compared to 34 per cent describing them as somewhat important and 27 per cent describing them as not important”

Indeed they even offered to cut the SIM card for Nik – superb service.

Well done Telecom. Your store outperformed Vodafone’s in every way. The staff were wonderful with Nik receiving constant attention from 3 during his visit. They even put the right settings into the iPad.

Of course the Vodafone store had a lot more customers coming to and fro.

The first is the wall of unusable phones. The mock phones let you check the look of the case, but they don’t let you experience the most important thing of all – the software.

Next is the sign up form, a usability and excessive information disaster.

Finally is the buying process. Even with an existing account Vodafone conducts a credit check before adding another account. That’s 5 minutes, and in this case (@nikz) despite spending $120+ each month the credit was referred for more checks. Suffice to say he moved on.

NZ iPhone plan comparison

It’s sad – but this great idea – a collaborative iPhone pricing spreadsheet for New Zealand – has completely failed. It’s a mess, there are people deleting things and Telco or device religion rather than science seems to be driving behaviour.

I don’t care how much Vodafone’s rates are – their network simply isn’t as good as Telecom’s XT network for the 3G radio frequencies used by the iPhone.

The account was run by Paul Brislen – who let his own account lie idle while he put himself into the Twittersphere.

And then something happened.

Vodafone decided to launch a campaign where “3G Guy” tours New Zealand giving away new net books. A great idea.

Unfortunately rather than using @3Gguy or similar to promote the tour, Vodafone instead passed the respected @vodafoneNZ account over to a pimply youth – 3Gguy.

The results are a fascinating case study.

The audience split into three – those that liked the competition (including new followers), those who saw a corporate PR account turn into a spamming machine, and the silent.

Unfortunately the second category contains many opinion leaders, journalists, web industry stalwarts and telco industry commentators.

While Paul Brislen re-opened his own account, and many people went off to follow him, many more have decided to unfollow @vodafonenz. The net goodwill is negative, and it now leaves @vodafonenz well behind the previously slightly less respected but still very well run @telecomnz team. As Twitter goes, so to the brands and companies.

So what are the lessons here?

Lesson one:

Twittering is better done by individuals, but when those individuals leave and are replaced by folks that don’t get it, their followers may leave with them. If they are disgruntled then the damage could be severe. (So be nice to Paul)

Lesson two:

Keep the promotion and PR accounts separate from each other. The PR account should point to promotions, but not run them. People will find the account that helps them get free stuff very quickly.

Lesson three:

When your audience reacts negatively – do something. The most frustrating thing about this promotion is the feeling that our Twitter friend, Paul Brislen, has been taken over against his will (my theory, not at all backed up by any fact) by out of control cluless marketing lunatics. It’s as if we now see the real Vodafone coming through – a Vodafone that doesn’t listen, that steamrolls over opposition and that has lost all the goodwill that Paul built up. It’s sad.

What Vodafone should do is simple – accept and acknowledge the error, move the 3Gguy twitter stream to his own account and put Paul back on (exclusively) the @vodafonenz account. Vodafone also need to learn from Paul, and take his guidance on how to run his account going forward.

So let’s have a look at the Twitter stream damage. It’s pretty fun actually, like watching a slow motion train wreck* in action.  *one where nobody is on the train

Here’s a recent page of @vodafonenz mentions from my Tweekdeck. I’ve helpfully colour-coded the tweets. Orange refers to the competition website being broken, Green is a customer service request, and Red are negative comments about the campaign and Vodafone. I’ve named the boxes for the colour blind and those that don’t read this bit and just want the pictures:

But wait – there is more – a lot more, under the fold I have pulled out some of the latest (mostly) negative twitters about Vodafone.

<update – But first – an ad break!

>

There’s also @vfNZno3Gguy, which retweets all the @vodafoneNZ and @paulBrislen tweets that are not about the promotion. If that isn’t a cluestick enough then there is no hope.

The vfNZno3Gguy account

Selected tweets. There are a lot more.

Clearly this post is striking a chord – plenty of retweets:

Now that the debacle is over, let’s check the winners and losers tally.

Winners – in order
Vodafone, for a well-timed legal action which created a major PR win and delay of a rival network

NBR – and Chris Keall for two excellent articles – one head and shoulders over the rest in summarising the court proceedings, and the other tipping that a settlement was likely today. Even their reporting of the final result is excellent.

Telecom – for capitulating in the end and continuing the journey on the long road back from purgatory

The Lawyers – they always win

Losers – in order

Telecom

1. For not doing the right thing from the start, and installing the filters to prevent interference with Vodafone’s network
2. For not understanding how this was going to play out early enough and letting it get to court
3. For the resulting major PR loss, the delay of the new network and the wasted marketing spend
4. and bonus for all this happening so soon after releasing a video that says how wonderful they are

All of us customers – To have to watch two giants playing silly buggers with each other while we cope with inadequate mobile and broadband infrastructure

Vodafone – for having released into the public domain information that makes us thing you are stretching your network’s capabilities, making us realise why our call and 3G connections are so lousy.

<update: Reynolds is unrepentant, and says that Vodafone will share the costs of Filters. He also says that there are already 1000 filters in place. Courtesy of the NBR – yet again.

Money quote:

Although Dr Reynolds sees his company in the right, Telecom settled the case, seeing a two-week delay in XT’s launch as a price worth paying to rid it of Vodafone’s High Court action, and to answer a request from the Justice, in Dr Reynolds’ words, for both sides “to sort it out”.

and

“there will be some circumstances in which we share costs”.

which has the ring of  Telecom paying almost all of the time.

Also

“Give me a break. The first I heard of it was late last week,” says Dr Reynolds, of Vodafone’s threat to go legal. “They finally came to the table two days ago”.

I would be looking searchingly at the strategy and engineering folk in Telecom if I were Dr. Reynolds. How the heck could this threat have been missed?>

And for your enjoyment after the fold are some tweets from this morning:

@lancewiggs Clearly they didn’t like being called cheap sods… Good result though well done Telecom

@bernardchickey (to @lancewiggs) – Good on Telecom for capitulating. They should have realised/known how this might end

@lancewiggsyup – it was a week, or even 2 months, too late.

@ericalloyd Good on them? I really am sick of all the ‘antler crashing’ meanwhile the customer is paying though the nose

@lancewiggs this is a huge improvement from TG days, and we should praise the wayward children when they play nicely

@ericalloyd wayward children playing nicely with way too many ‘zeros’ for me to be praiseworthy

@lancewiggs  we take the wins we can. It’s a long long way back from purgatory for @TelecomNZ

@bernardchickey:  I’m less sympathetic. I was inside the beast in 05. While ago, but as a customer I don’t see much different. B’band still crap

@peterdarlington Tut tut Bernard, that wouldn’t be in the spirit of cooperation that momentarily rules the cellular landscape…

@bernardchickey Momentarily is the word. New Zealand needs more competition and stoushes to get prices down. This fight has been great

..

@amatix  Voda won the PR battle for sure. About the actual issue, Telecom seems in the right…

@stevebiddle While I agree I have lost some respect for Reynolds. He didn’t need to attack Vf like he did.

..

@amatix No way – The proceedings look pretty cut and dried to me with Telecom clearly in the wrong. They had to capitulate

@gnat TelecomNZ has the launch date moved?

@bernardchickey: End of May apparently : That’s a whole lot of billboards to change

____

After this post was published:

@startupnz (to vodafonenz) did your PR guys drop the ball on this one on what! Looks like you’ve fueled interest in XT (holdng a bat ready to defend my …

@vodafoneNZ hardly. We worked in the spirit of the court. No comment while it’s sub judice (sp). Now it’s sorted. That’s good.

@dazzacollins I think its more a case of making the pain go away on the eve of launch, due to your competitor blindsiding you

..

@vodafonenz (to me) Vodafone customers are the winners. They get their service back.

@vodafonenz (to bernard) no need I believe. (in response to comment on billboards changing)

..

@nzlemming:  Does this mean the Hamster has crashed it already? :-D

@benkepes the lawyers and vodafone won. Telecom lost on a number of fronts. It’s not as simple as your post would indicate…

..

@ajobbins:@VodafoneNZ NOW my phone decides it wants to play up. On 3G tho… Outgoing calls failing/taking forever to connect

And there I was praising Telecom the other day – praise it seems that was all too soon. I am concerned that recent behavior is indicating that Telecom is back to its old monopolist ways.

I write of course of the XT network interference with the Vodafone network. The facts laid out in Vodafone’s submission and the court case – ably reported by the NBR – are on the surface pretty simple:

• Telecom’s new XT network interferes with the Vodafone network
• Telecom has known about this for a while
• Telecom could have removed this interference by spending $900,000 to install filters

There is a bit more nuance in the court case, but as a customer I am mad enough as it stands.

Yes Vodafone could spend some money to maintain their own service quality, yes Vodafone coverage is not close to perfect anyway, and yes Vodafone could have formally engaged with Telecom earlier.

But one the thing that has changed is Telecom’s new network.

The absolutely crazy thing is that the $900,000 to update all Telecom cells is chump-change in this context, and by not spending it Telecom is not only risking a lot, they making us all suffer:

• Telecom suffers as they suffer PR damage, just as they launch a new network
• Telecom suffers if their launch date is delayed
• Telecom and Vodafone suffer financial costs of the court cases
• Vodafone suffers as their network quality drops precipitously
• We all suffer as we all have even more lousy phone services
• The lawyers win – they always do

It’s positively juvenile, and the sort of behavior I would have expected from the old Telecom administration.

So please wake up Telecom – and behave in a way that shows you care about all New Zealanders. Demonstrate some of the values that you are trying to show in the video you produced.

1. Fess up, say you will install the filters as quickly as possible
2. Install those filters within a week. Nothing is impossible
3. Settle with Vodafone so that their lawyers don’t run your business.

In the meantime those in the executive suites please ask yourselves How did this happen? Was this a decision made at the top or were you as blindsided as much as we were? If you were blindsided then how could your culture let that happen?

Until you fess up and move on we are back to the old promote one way and behave in an entirely differnt way – it doesn’t work for children and it certainly doesn’t work on us adults.

We’ll find out tomorrow at midday whether Vodafone is vindicated, but in the meantime I just want my phone to work properly.

It’s important because it shows that Telecom increasingly gets it – they are getting that it is about delivering the right service to New Zealanders (fiber to the home rated a mention), they get that it is about the people that work there, and they get that Youtube (and twitter) are great mediums for spreading the news.They manage to say this while taking little digs at themselves and being very human.

It was uploaded yesterday Youtube time, and  had just 392 views when I saw it. It will be interesting to observe how far and fast the views go.

The cast list was telling – the boss is the eighth listed, which means he was the eighth person to appear in the piece. That’s leadership.

It’s so nice to be able to write something good about Telecom. Roll on the days when we can write a whole lot more.

Examples: How not to twitter.

@NZStuff (sorry) sends through groups of news, either at 530am or during the day. The 530am news is from when the news is posted to the Stuff.co.nz website in an overnight process. The news sits unreleased until the morning so that the newspapers are not scooped. I don’t agree with this approach as to me news fails to be news when I can read it somewhere else first.
The ones during the day are the ‘most popular’ (I think), and also released by a bot (I think). By definition they are already out of date when they are tweeted, and almost by definition the audience of active twitterers will have already read them.

Rather than @nzstuff’s automatically redundant articles, instead follow @NZStuffEditor, who is not very prolific but at least sends out news that is timely – and timeliness is a vital component of the definition of “news”.

Examples: How to Twitter
While the Wall Street Journal (@wsj) also twitters articles, it does so very rarely in groups of three, and most often the tweets are through the day. Almost invariably their tweets are before anybody else’s, and are therefore news in the truest sense. @NYTimes is not quite as quick, and will sometimes deliver in clumps, but they tend to beat the local alternatives and like the WSJ also link to longer articles on interesting and topical things.

What all so far are missing is the human element.

I’d really like to see @NZStuff reply to people’s twitters, and to give a bit of extra juice that we don’t get from the website. Stuff and others need to remember that their customers are not just people that read the news, but people that evanglise their services and want some inside scoop, people that want to send them news (but need to know it will be looked at) and, most of all in these times, people that are thinking about buying advertising,

Rather surprisingly the best corporations at Twittering in New Zealand are the telcos. I’ve had conversations in public and private with @TelecomNZ, @VodafoneNZ and ISP @orcon. They reach out to customers and help them – often walking down to the customer service folk and asking them to resolve an issue. Indeed they have each helped solve (or at least help me understand) a personal customer service issue, and their corporate reputations with me are all a lot better for it. Here they are earlier today each helping someone out:

I’d like to see them extend this beyond the corporate communication people – especially to Customer Service and also to the real tech-heads.

Air New Zealand’s  @flyairnz does well – sending out specials, but also being a human – replying to questions and making comments – such as welcoming @johnkeypm to Twitter.

Trade Me has  unleashed a few people – with twitter names like  TradeMe_Ross , TradeMe_Jay, TradeMe_Jobs along with Trademe_NZ and Travelbug. The latter has a combination of background tweets and specials. Kudos for this topical tweet:

This stream from TradeMe_Jay is an exemplary example of how Twitter can extend your corporate PR reach well beyond what a PR team can do. In four tweets Jay helps a member (and ex Trade Me employee admittedly), personalizes the continuous development work that Trade Me does and links to an ‘expose’ video that most corporations would cringe to see appear on YouTube.

However Trade Me’s main twitter account is dormant, and we have yet to see Motors, Property or Customer Service make an appearance.

Google allows their staff (it seems) to twitter as they like – here’s Webstock speaker Pamela Fox announcing the release of Google’s new analytics Data Export API – something that I think has tremendous potential to change the advertising scene in NZ and elsewhere.

I’ll point to @powershop and @lingopal as two other examples, but to be fair I am involved as a supplier to the first and shareholder with the second. That shouldn’t stop you following them though :-).

Enough of the examples – what should you do if you are thinking of twittering?

How to take advantage of Twitter

The real power of Twitter is the 1-1 interactions, and yet there are only so many people that sit in corporate relations units. Moreover their job should not be to look after every tech nerd’s customer complaint, nor to understand every bizarre happening on the internet.

To me a great corporation would have three things on Twitter:

1. A corporate voice – run by the corporate relations unit and staffed by a person. They would tweet press releases, reply to tweets that discuss the bigger picture (investor, employee relations, big stories) and generally have a slower beat but positive and official response.
2. An active Customer Service voice – this would be staffed 24/7 but owned overall by a single person. That means that while a number of people will answer the tweets, the owner would make sure that there is consistency, speed and humanity behind it. The CS twitterer would continuously search for good and bad experiences from the organisation’s products and give thanks or help accordingly. They are the front line and so would have a very quick response time. They would deal with problems in public, take them to Twitter direct messages and ultimately call the customer directly.
3. Unleashed individuals. Great companies would unleash everybody inside their organization to tweet about what they are doing, engage in conversations and show a genuine human face (warts and all) to the company’s customers and the public.This last one is scary.

   However if you are concerned that some employees will somehow destroy your company and brand then perhaps instead you need to do some serous internal navel gazing – and ask yourself “why would they do that?”. Even if some employees do tweet negative things, then see it as a fine way to take the pulse of your staff – and also fix the underlying problems.

   While I would put in place simple guidelines, most of those would already be in any employee contract. The main things not to tweet would be things like investor-level commercially sensitive information, competitively sensitive pricing and Apple product development news.

The progress made by the companies above is pleasing – and I hope we will see more of this as the use of Twitter and other tools expands.

It appears that Roseneath, one of NZ’s wealthier suburbs, and where I live, is barely covered by Vodafone’s 3G service.

Actually there are plenty of gaps across Wellington – including Karaka Bay, Worser Bay and Seatoun, where many of the folks from the Miramar movie industry live.

You can forget about Vodafone highish speed mobile broadband if you have the time and money to ski Ruapaheu this year – there is not a whisker of Vodafone 3G

While in Auckland the wealthy suburbs of Mission Bay and St Helliers seem to partially miss out as well. Is this a conspiracy against the wealthy?

This is not great from Vodafone – either the map is wrong, or they are missing out on a segment of the market that can easily afford to pay for 3G, and one that travels around New Zealand a lot. Don’t start me on the huge posibilities of revenie from international travel – at least not until the global roaming rates fall a few of orders of magnitude below $30,000 per GB.

Around New Zealand coverage is pretty sparse, with State Highway one uncovered for much of the journey up the North Island, and many towns simply missing out.

The South Island is worse.

But Vodafone still wins here – as there is no Telecom 3G coverage for those maps. In fact their own coverage maps are hard to find – there are only links on that “coverage map” page. Here’s the Wellington one (pdf)  – too low resolution to be of any use, and vague as to what goes where.

However in Australia Telstra Clear went from dodgy last to being the best 3G service by far – and they did a similar thing to what Telecom is doing in NZ right now – upgrading their vast existing network and leapfrogging everyone else.

While I would like to see a pre-emptive coverage response from Vodafone NZ, I’m pretty sure they won’t invest – they have got a good percentage of the population, and it is hard to justify hitting the sparsely populated rural areas. In Australia though there was a tipping point, where it became obvious that Telstra has coverage in say, Leonora, and the others simply did not. so going forward, if you ever find yourself needing data in the middle of nowhere, skiing on Whakapapa say, then Telecom will look increasingly viable.