Telecom and Vodafone to hold midnight iPhone 5 launches

Telecom and Vodafone will both be holding midnight launch events for the iPhone 5 Thursday night to Friday morning.

Telecom will hold events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The Auckland event will be at 167 Victoria Street, the Wellington event at 42-52 Willis Street, and the Christchurch event will be in Riccarton Mall.

The company said customers will be able to wait indoors and there will be "food, entertainment, music, massages and games".

Telecom will start selling the iPhone 5 from 12:01am Friday.

Vodafone is holding launch events in all the same cities as Telecom, but has added Dunedin to its launch list.

The Auckland event will be indoors, held at Vodafone's headquarters at 20 Viaduct Harbour Avenue. Former Shortland Street star Kim Crossman will MC the event, and Jupiter Project and Jessie G will perform.

Radio DJs from The Edge will also be broadcasting live from the event.

The Wellington launch will be held at 358 Lambton Quay, and in Dunedin it will take place in the Meridian Mall on George Street.

Like Telecom, Vodafone will hold its Christchurch event in Riccarton Mall.

Vodafone sales will also start at 12:01am.