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| Thread ID: 66118 | 2006-02-11 18:46:00 | Email Cunliffe re Telecom/Broadband | braindead (1685) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 429338 | 2006-02-12 00:43:00 | Yes best not to use bad language to a Minister of the Crown. I wrote a two page letter last month, got a quick thank you letter from his under sceretary saying they are looking at it. As you say after years of dithering they have to do something. Every week there is some new article in the press (not much in PC World) about how far behind we are. (are they on Xtra ?) Telecom also rip us off on mobile phones. It is still 72 cents plus GST to call a mobile from a landline, exactly the same price as it was when they first come in 15 years ago. We use text messages more than most other countries purely because it is too dear to make voice calls on mobiles. The best way for us to get a decent broadband is not to sign up for it until they offer a decent service at a good price and this will make them look even worse. Also phone your local MP's. Regards Digby |
Digby (677) | ||
| 429339 | 2006-02-12 01:50:00 | DangerousDave I tell it like I see it. You want to do it differently and that's cool. Now put your money where your mouth is, let's see what you can come up with and post it here. All this endless schlock about unbundling, deregulation etc is just that - a load of procrastinating BS. You see it one way and others see it another way. I will not be bothered sending an Email as the way you are doing it will achieve nothing. |
Sweep (90) | ||
| 429340 | 2006-02-12 04:17:00 | manicminer I refuse to sit on the fence anymore. Inside information has it that the ministers do in fact read public comments, emails, letters. Where it concerns their political survival even more so. Pen something, stick it here and it may provide inspiration for those who don't like my style or who don't know how to write a nice polite letter :) Yes - I know, I respect your resolve and determination. I feel as strongly about Telecom as you do. But writing ****ty letters to idle politicians won't acheive anything. Have a look at Telescum.co.nz. I'm sure there's some discussion on there about letter writing to MPs etc - A few on there are doing it regularly. Go there...most ppl on PCWorld seem to have better things to do than complain about broadband. Also try the broadband forums at Gameplanet. (www.gpforums.co.nz) :thumbs: |
manicminer (4219) | ||
| 429341 | 2006-02-12 05:03:00 | People who leap up and down should do a bit of reading of the costs incurred with installing and setting up the Southern Cross cable: www.nzherald.co.nz Also just consider how little it would take for NZ to virtually lose all its internet connectivity if that cable is doubly severed, say in a massive undersea quake. www.scoop.co.nz I dont know if the University of Waikato link is still working, that is all we had before the Southern Cross. |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 429342 | 2006-02-13 20:39:00 | Here's wht I wrote to him Edward Lang XXX Riccarton Christchurch New Zealand 21st of January 2006 Dear Mr Cunliffe My name is Edward Lang, and I am quite frankly appalled at the state of New Zealand's broadband, Telecom's business practices, and most importantly the fact that the Government doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. First, I shall provide some information about myself. I am a teenager who resides in Riccarton, Christchurch. Before you flag me as "just another gamer" who wants faster broadband "just to play games and watch movies" this is not true. While I have reasons for wanting (borderline needing) faster broadband speeds (primarily upload speeds), gaming and video is not one of them. Firstly, I'll look at Internet in our country. New Zealanders are not technophobic. We aren't scared of new technology, and in fact according to stuff.co.nz we are ranked second in the world for Internet penetration, with 77.6% of us having Internet in some form or another. However, according to the OCED (www.oecd.org), a pitiful 6.9% of us have broadband. And the reason for this can be summed up in one word: Telecom. But why do we have this lack of fast Internet? Why? It couldn't be that we don't want Internet, as this has been disproved by us only being beaten by Malta in terms of total Internet penetration. It couldn't be that it simply isn't available out here, because Australia manages to jump to 17th in the rankings. So it must be that prices are extremely high, for what little you get. For my first example, I'll compare budget plans. According to www.whirlpool.net.au, Internode's HOME-512-STARTER plan is 512kb/s down, and 128kb/s up, for $39.95 (NZ $39.95 = AU $ 36.29, according to www.xe.com). Comparatively, iiNet's Broadband2+ Starter offers 4gb of data, 24mbit/down and 1mbit/up for the same place. Xtra's Jetstream on the other hand, has 256kb/s down and 128kb/s up with 1gb of data. Next I'll compare "power user" broadband, and Xtra's "Adventure" plan will be my comparison point. At $59.95 NZ, it offers 2mbit/s down / 128kb/s up, with 10gb of data transfer per month.The price equates to $54.46 AUD. And at $59.85 AUD per month, both Internode and iiNet have full speed ADSL2+ broadband, with 20gb worth of data cap. This to me is unacceptable. And to add insult to injury, that is the fastest that Telecom offer. So while businesses are forced to endure 128kb/s upstream, their Australian equivalents can use speeds of up to 1mbit/s. And it's not just Australia that's laughing at us. I'll take a couple of fellow phpBB team members as examples, AdamR and Vic D'Elfant. Currently Vic gets full rate ADSL2+, no data cap, and all for $36 NZ. Granted, he lives in Maastricht, however as a city of 121k people and using ADSL as their technology, if they can do it so can we. That's not the best part. Adam gets 15mbit down / 2mbit up with Fibre. Again, this is Tampa, and they have the population to support it. But why can't we? I realise that saying "ooh, X country gets Y service" won't help, but those were examples of countries that didn't let only one company control the Internet, and let there be real competition. So what can competiton do, and how can we encourage it? Well we can see it already. Phone lines are cheaper in Christchurch and Wellington because Telstraclear are offering an alternative network. And plots such as $10 text and the 3 minute hour employed by the mobile phone companies are designed to attract users to their networks. And when there's only one provider, there simply won't be any incentive to offer cheaper and faster Internet. This is the point of this email, to convince you to reconsider some things. In particular, I would love to see the Local Loop Unbundled. This is the best way to encourage competition. Because while there's Telecom in complete control of the phone lines and no alternative network (cable, fibre etc) there will be no true competition, because all the UBS scheme really is is Telecom vs. Telecom. And while I'd also love to see a nationwide fibre network offering unmetered 100mbit access to everyone, I guess we'll have to take this one step at a time here, and LLU is the best thing we cn do at the moment to foster competition. And no matter what Telecom threaten about not upgrading their network, that doesn't matter - the beauty of competition is that someone else will be able to come along and perform upgrades. In conclusion, I request that you do give serious thought to LLU, and about the revenue it'll generate, and how our money will be going back into New Zealand, instead of overseas companies. Would you like us to be up there in the rankings alongside places like South Korea, Canada and Denmark? Because piddling around with the likes of Ireland, Poland and Mexico near the bottom of the charts isn't very rewarding. Thank you for your time. Yours sincerely Edward Lang |
Edward (31) | ||
| 429343 | 2006-02-13 22:01:00 | thats a Nice letter you did there Edward :) | stu161204 (123) | ||
| 429344 | 2006-02-13 22:16:00 | I have to think that following years of inaction the emails and letters coming in from individuals grizzling will make no difference . They already know full well that people are grumpy - but they like the income from Telecom though . What would make a difference would be to have real examples of businesses who have or who are seriously thinking of moving offshore due to the inability to transact their business as efficiently as their competitiors due to the lack of broadband capability . It's a further nail in the future of NZs economy that tends to get a little action . Eg . if Weta Workshops either moved or threatened to move to say Australia then the local MP (Annette King) I think would probably take some action . Just a thought . |
dvm (6543) | ||
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