In order to assist the country in its third cell phone network operator's investment in infrastructure, foreign shareholders in 2Degrees Mobile have raised more money. According to documents filed with the Companies Office, Trilogy International New Zealand and Tesbrit, and creator Tex Edwards' KLR Hong Kong, which are chief shareholders, have purchased 18 million shares at 75 US cents per piece to add US$13.5 million into the firm.

Prior to this, in May, Trilogy and Tesbrit had injected US$7.5 million in the Company.

Bryony Hilless, Corporate Communications Manager, said that the funds were not associated with the $52 million loss that is anticipated in the nine months till December 2010.

She said, "It's essentially for the ongoing capital requirements to fund investment in infrastructure - we've got our new 3G to roll out".

Last year, the firm had made a debut in the market and was successful in attracting 206,000 customers, or 4.5% of the market and that too in its initial six months.

However, soon it was seen that the customers started shifting to other leading operators like Telecom and Vodafone. 2Degrees had managed to secure 53,000 customers from its rivals in February.