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Thread ID: 134997	2013-09-12 04:26:00	Only in New Zealand...	ruup (1827)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1353364	2013-09-12 04:26:00	Only in New Zealand... Today the Axe the Copper Tax campaign is being announced. The Government is proposing to prevent the cost of copper broadband connections to retail users being reduced to the fair price determined by the Commerce Commission. It is estimated that around $600 million will be transferred over the next six years to the shareholders of Chorus from the users of copper broadband through this change. Chorus, which has the contract to build 70% of the new fibre network, paid $95 million to shareholders in the last financial year by way of dividends so this subsidy is significant. And the reason for this particular episode of corporate welfarism? Chris Barton in the Herald recently said this: Deutsche Bank predicted a share price over the next year of $2.29 (significantly lower than Chorus’s listing price of $2.94) and cut its dividend forecasts for Chorus for 2015 to 18 cents per share, down from 25.5 cents previously. Deutsche also noted Chorus was facing some “$500 million of estimated unbudgeted costs associated with the greater than forecast cost of supplying UFB connections between the network and consumers’ premises. Get that? In a competitive tender Chorus mucked up the figures and bid too low and the Government is willing to overcharge us so that Chorus’s shareholders do not miss out. Why don’t the Government get staunch on the issue and tell Chorus it signed a contract, rather than allow us to be overcharged so that Chorus’s shareholders do not miss out Full article here: thestandard.org.nz	ruup (1827)
1353365	2013-09-12 05:21:00	Not that it excuses anything but all the UFB contractors are looking likely to lose money on the deal. It's not really just a matter of tendering too low either, the government virtually dictated the price by not accepting anything higher. It seems contractors in the communications industry fall all over themselves trying to please the big players with their pricing and we as consumers benefit a little but meanwhile the techs who keep our phones running are becoming one of the lowest paid trades around. I don't want to pay any more for my broadband either, but we tend to forget there's a flow on effect to the staff of these companies. I'm flabbergasted they accept the margins they do, but I guess it's all about volume. Chorus I think are realising they don't have much in the way of revenue streams since splitting off from Telecom and the broadband pricing hits them directly in the pocket so naturally they are trying their level best to mitigate that. UFB is not turning out to be an earner to date. Who knows where this will all lead.	dugimodo (138)
1353366	2013-09-12 05:24:00	You read The Standard???? Wow, you must be gullible.	Richard (739)
1353367	2013-09-12 05:51:00	More gullible people... www.stuff.co.nz www.nbr.co.nz especially for the gullible...	ruup (1827)
1353368	2013-09-12 08:44:00	This is all just another anti government political campaign organised by the Labour Party and their supporters. Be interesting to see how it all turns out. If you do not like the price you are not compelled to pay. Chorus and everyone else has to make a profit or they go under. I for one do not want to end up using a couple of cans and a length of string to comunicate with the rest of the world.	CliveM (6007)
1353369	2013-09-12 09:50:00	ahem. www.nzherald.co.nz	Metla (12)
1353370	2013-09-12 10:03:00	Once upon a time, in a land not far away, there was a telco with a monopoly on everything with the result that it made big profits. Now it would normally reinvest in the network and what was left over would be dividends for the shareholders. But the man who ran this telco, Dean Roderick, wasn't satisfied with this as he wanted to pay BIGGER dividends to the shareholders. So he borrowed the money to invest in the network and used all the profits for dividends as he reckoned it was "cheaper to borrow money from the bank than from the shareholders" The problem with this was that during rough times, the dividends could be deferred if necessary, but definitely not the bank's interest. (but this didn't worry Roderick) Some years later, the government, not satisfied with the way the telco's customers were being treated, split the company in two. The hardest part of doing this, was the proportion each of the new companies took on of the (by now) large debts of the original telco. (They couldn't ask Roderick for his opinion as he was long gone and, as he was the author of this problem, they probably didn't want it anyway.) The result is that the Choir, the new lines company, is burdened with a LARGE debt, which is preventing them lowering the cost of internet access to what it should be. (instead of the price being cost plus profit it is now cost plus profit plus large debt servicing.) And you dear reader, are once again paying through the nose for some idiot's economic theories.	decibel (11645)
1353371	2013-09-12 10:39:00	....And you dear reader, are once again paying through the nose for some idiot's economic theories.:thanks Exactly, and we need many more people like you who scream the head off so people eventually get it.(hopefully)	notechyet (4479)
1353372	2013-09-13 00:33:00	What I'd like to know is that if this "tax" goes through, we copper ADSL broadband users, end up paying the same or more through their ISP's ?	Digby (677)
1353373	2013-09-13 03:02:00	As I read it....and maybe I am wrong...is that the Commerce Commission said prices for copper broadband should go down. Chorus complained, National said no, no, you have to leave them alone. So it's not like it goes up? If copper went down, can't see that a lot of people could justify the extra cost for fibre. I can't....had a look at Telecoms pricing, proper speed fibre seems to be $125.....rather more than I pay now for internet. OK, if I did a lot of movies online perhaps...but I don't. I use around 10GB a month.... When it's fully in place, been a round for ages, prices come down all over...then I might care.	pctek (84)
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