Can 2degrees and XT top Vodafone’s gain?

2degrees will release its customer numbers on Friday – two and half hours after Telecom reveals the number of subscribers on its XT Network, but will they match Vodafone's gains in the last financial quarter?

Both mobile networks launched last year and it's been a ferocious competition to see how many customers each has been able to steal from rival Vodafone.

At Vodafone Group's quarterly briefing last week it was revealed that its New Zealand subsidiary has acquired 9,000 customers in the last quarter. This brings the total Vodafone NZ customers to 2.493 million, of which 70.7% are prepay. This compares to the previous quarter in which the telco lost 27,000 customers.

At its last quarterly results Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds told analysts the XT Network has attracted 242,000 customers, 64,000 of them new Telecom mobile customers. In addition, Telecom has seen a 16% rise in Average Revenue Per User compared to what customers are spending on its old CDMA network.

At the briefing on Friday Telecom will update analysts on the number of subscribers to its XT Network. The success of XT is viewed by financial analysts as a key indicator of Telecom's performance and the audience will also be keen to learn how the two outages on the XT network have affected consumer confidence. Reynolds may also take the opportunity to provide more information about the proposed independent review that was promised on the day of the second outage.

On the same day as Telecom, 2degrees will update the market on how the company has performed in the past six months and how many customers it has attracted to its network.

"Since the launch of 2degrees there has been continual and sustained interest in our progress from media and the general public alike. For this reason 2degrees is taking the unusual step for a privately held company, of sharing some company information at the conclusion of its first six months of operation," reads the invitation to the briefing.

In the past 2degrees has claimed to have around 100,000 subscribers.