TelstraClear, a unit of Australia's Telstra Corp. begins to offer a 3G mobile service for its New Zealand business customers Thursday with plans to triple its devices in the market over the next three years.

TelstraClear's head of customer experience John Bone revealed that while no one would wish the failure experienced by Telecom's XT network on any telco, the reality was it had been fortuitous. In addition, he said TelstraClear had initiated the service forward with an aim to grab advantage of insatiate Telecom customers seeking to switch.

The company is looking forward to secure 100,000 devices in the post-paid market over the next three years. The company, which is listed in Australia and New Zealand, currently posses around 30,000 devices in the market. Contract prices start at $40 for 100 minutes of calling, with data costing $59 per month for one gigabyte; 500 texts will cost $10.

The CDMA customers having pre-pay connections could then choose to switch to Vodafone services, Bone quoted.

TelstraClear has undergone a three-year deal with Vodafone last year, filling the void in the acerbic relations between the telco giants over a mobile reseller deal which turned sour in 2007.