Former Vodafone exec new director of XT

Telecom has announced the appointment of Kieren Cooney as director of mobile to replace Paul Hamburger who leaves the company in July.

Cooney (pictured) is currently CEO of Leading Edge, Telecom's retail dealer partner which runs 60 Telecom stores nationwide. Prior to the role, he held senior positions at Vodafone from 2001 to 2006, during the time it launched its 3G service.

Cooney will be responsible for the commercial operations of Telecom’s mobile networks – that is product management, plans, handsets, roaming, supply chain, retail promotions and sales.  He replaces Paul Hamburger, whose lifestyle decision to spend half his time in Florida and the other half in New Zealand had been cause for comment in the industry.

However, it was Hamburger’s failure to secure an iPhone distribution deal which appeared to cause more concern, particularly among analysts who continue to raise questions about the iPhone at Telecom's financial briefings. This is despite Telecom announcing a new Google Android device and there being a couple of Blackberry handsets available in the XT range. The significance of the iPhone is it drives the adoption of post-pay accounts which boosts Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

The toughest task for Cooney will be resurrecting the XT brand, following five outages in the past five months. Telecom has been praised for its handling of the communications around the outages by TUANZ, and it has offered customers compensation packages totalling $15 million, but Cooney will need to convince the public of XT’s reliability, as well as its coverage, which Telecom has admitted doesn’t yet match that of its older CDMA.

On the prepay front XT faces strong opposition from arch rivals Vodafone, who today launched a competitive prepay offering of a $12 prepay voice bundle. In addition, newcomer 2degrees is nipping at its heels. 2degrees had a successful launch, acquiring 206,000 active customers in its first six months of operation and it’s CEO Eric Hertz claims that 2degrees's ARPU is in excess of Telecom’s. There are around 470,000 customers on the XT network.

Cooney’s experience as Vodafone’s GM of media and content will obviously be valuable. Telecom launched a mobile TV service on the XT network last year, but the company has not provided figures on its uptake.

In the press release announcing today’s appointment, Gourdie praised Cooney’s “knowledge of the New Zealand mobile market and understanding of the competitive landscape.”

Cooney will begin his new role in June and was unavailable for an interview today, however a spokesperson emailed Telecommunications Review the following quote: "I'm excited to be joining Telecom. I'm passionate about the fantastic impact mobile has had on the way we work and live, and really believe that Telecom has the right focus and team to help lead the next exciting phase in this industry."

Cooney's employment history, as outlined in the press release is:

07/2006– Present: Leading Edge NZ Ltd - CEO

12/2001– 04/2006: Vodafone NZ (and APAC)

GeneralManager, New Markets

GeneralManager, Media and Content

04/2000- 12/2001: Touchpoint NZ Aust Ltd - Founding General Manager

06/1998– 04/2000: eVentures / eLoan - Head of Development & Strategy

01/1997– 06/1998: Tacit Group Ltd - Global Product Manager, Internet