Object to 'Vodafone Aotearoa'? Better not switch to us, says 2degrees

Tuesday, 29 September 2020

Vodafone NZ says it has no intention of changing its network carrier message unless there is another reason it needs to show support for country in different way.

2degrees and Spark have gone into bat for Vodafone NZ after one of its customers complained about the company changing its network carrier identifier to “Vodafone Aotearoa”.

The identifier appears on the home screen of phones to identify what network phone users are connected to.

Vodafone spokeswoman Nicky Preston said it had begun displaying Vodafone Aotearoa after the end of Māori language week this month to demonstrate its ongoing support for te reo.

But one customer tweeted that they didn’t appreciate the message, describing it as a “woke virtue-signal”.

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They tweeted their country was called New Zealand and said they would switch provider if the message remained.

They later clarified they wouldn’t have a problem with Vodafone using “New Zealand/Aotearoa”.

The tweets drew a strong reaction from other social media users.

2degrees and Spark were quick to show a united front with Vodafone.

2degrees tweeted that the customer had “better not switch to us” as it also loved celebrating te reo Māori, congratulating Vodafone on the change.

Spark tweeted that te reo was a “normal part of our country” in response to another social media user who chipped in that Māori language week was over and it was time to “get back to normal”.

Preston said Vodafone had previously changed its carrier identifier to display the message “Stay Safe” in the wake of New Zealand’s level 4 lockdown in March.

That was later changed to “Stay Kind”, before being switched back to “Stay Safe” during Auckland’s second level-three alert.

It thought “Vodafone Aotearoa” was a nice way to show its support for te reo after Māori language week, she said.

“We have been trying to reassert te reo is something we are proud of.”

Vodafone had no intention of changing the message “unless there is another reason we want to show support for New Zealand such as the ‘Stay Safe’ message that we had over lockdown”, she said.

Telcos are not the only businesses that altered their greetings to reflect diversity. Stuff has changed the greeting on its homepage to “Kia Ora, Aotearoa”