Building a 4G future
Heading for life in the fast lane
Want to do more of what you love online, faster? We want to help you do exactly that, which is why we are planning to launch our 4G LTE mobile technology before Christmas. It will be a whole new way of using your mobile phone.
We want to deliver the best possible experience to our customers from day one, and so before we roll the network out, we are testing it rigorously, including thorough customer trials. Once completed, we will begin the process of rolling out our 4G LTE coverage.
What's more, we will have a great range of 4G LTE capable mobile phones to make it even easier to experience our fantastic new network once it goes live.
4G FAQs
We understand you may have a few questions about 4G and the trials we will be carrying out later this year. You'll find helpful information in our FAQs.
Read FAQs
4G Media Release
Telecom announced today that it will be upgrading its Smartphone Network to 4G, beginning with a trial later in the year.
Read more
4G LTE Trials
Right now, we're trialing 4G LTE technology in selected parts of Wellington, Auckland, Hawke's Bay and Bay of Plenty.
The trials will help us determine how the technology will work in New Zealand's environmental conditions, and to test real life speeds and experiences. We're gathering information from consumers, small and medium businesses and Gen-i customers to make sure 4G LTE works brilliantly for personal and business users alike.
It's all part of our commitment to continually deliver the very best experience for Telecom customers.
Today's network
Our network is designed for Smartphones. We deliver fast, nationwide, mobile-internet coverage to 97% of the places Kiwis live and work.
To ensure we deliver world-class service, we're continually monitoring our network and testing it with great results. We're also developing the device ecosystem for 4G LTE.
We're also looking at bringing new 4G LTE-enabled mobile phones - and other devices like tablets or mobile hotspots – on to our network.
Evolving the Smartphone Network
The Smartphone network has fast 3G and HSPA+ nationwide coverage. When we launch 4G LTE, we'll be bringing even faster speeds to some of our mobile customers*.
Our technology
LTE stands for "Long Term Evolution” and allows for greater speeds and better capacity*. After the release of 4G LTE, any areas without coverage will revert back to HSPA+. Our CDMA network has closed since July 2012.
Evolving the Smartphone Network
Our Smartphone Network is designed to handle data, calls and text messages better than ever before. So it makes sense that the world's most popular Smartphones work brilliantly on the Smartphone Network.
Faster, more powerful and with a heap of features, Smartphones go way past simple calls and texts. You can get street-by-street directions across town, watch the latest videos or news, and get live updates from your friends on Facebook or Twitter.
Delivering world-class mobile coverage
Currently our Smartphone Network covers more than 97% of where New Zealanders work and play, which means you, can do more of the things you love, faster and in more places.
We'll be testing 4G LTE to work out how we can bring our new capabilities to as many people as possible. If, when we launch, you find out that 4G LTE coverage* isn't available in a certain area; you'll switch over seamlessly to our existing HSPA+ network.
Moving your business forward
With the explosion of Smartphones and the increasing use of mobile data, the Smartphone Network is geared to meet your business needs.
4G LTE will keep on the pulse of your business, with faster access and our world-class global roaming capability options.
Check out some New Zealand businesses that chose the Smartphone Network to drive their business:
*At this stage we can't promise where 4G LTE coverage will be, the trial will help us determine that. But when we roll out 4G LTE and coverage isn't available in a certain area you will switch over seamlessly to our existing HSPA+ network.