Econet secures Maori 3G deal

The venture is Econet's first outside Africa

Pan-African cell phone operator, Econet Wireless, has signed a deal with New Zealand's Maori people to operate their licence for running third generation mobile phones.

Econet, already operates in six different African countries, and will start its New Zealand operations in February.

Under the terms of the deal with the Maoris, Econet exchanged the licence for a 15% stake in its existing mobile phone operations.

The licence was set aside last year by the New Zealand government for the Maori people, who claimed the spectrum as part of their rights under settlement of historical grievances.

The Maori secured the license last year at the peak of the industries' enthusiasm for 3G.

Network in place

Econet hopes that the New Zealand operation will be relatively cheap in terms of capital investment, in part because Vodafone, the UK based cellular phone giant, has already built a national network.

Vodafone is the sole existing GSM standard digital phone operator in New Zealand.

Econet has lobbied effectively for 'mandatory roaming' which will allow it to run its services using the existing infrastructure built by Vodafone.