TUANZ - Telecomunications Users Association Of New Zealand

Bird on a wire lashes out

Posted Sat 6 March 2010 @ 6:56 p.m. by Ernie

Usually you're safe from a Bird on a Wire unless you're directly underneath, but Theresa Gattung seems to be endangering everyone within a 360 degree trajectory.Media this weekend have reviewed various chapters. Its frustrating to see the book unveiled chapter by chapter but I guess its a part of the marketing mix - I'm told that media are expected to pay for the right to review a chapter. So maybe we're seeing the more sensational material in advance.According to the Herald she's slated the...

Theresa takes a swipe at Telecom salaries

Posted Fri 5 March 2010 @ 7:11 a.m. by Ernie

Theresa Gattung seems to have saved the release of her book for Telecom's moment of most extreme misery. I'll be reading it. Despite some fundamental differences in view I enjoyed the interaction with Theresa when she was CEO, and will be interested in her perspective a few years on.According to the Herald, a key focus is her questioning whether the current senior staff of Telecom deserve such generous pay, given the decline in the company's fortunes and profits.Having a whack at corporate salaries...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Wireless carriers

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European regulators put a stop to roaming "bill shock"

Posted Fri 5 March 2010 @ 3:52 a.m. by Ernie

Action by European regulators to eliminate roaming bill shock, effective this week, will be very welcome. I hope it spreads to this corner of the world.Requiring mobile operators to pre-determine a ceiling for each customer's roaming is a very practical measure. Taken in conjunction with the regulated 60% reduction in roaming charges from July, this action should all but eliminate a source of enormous risk for inexperienced holiday makers, let alone business travellers.Roaming bill shock, one...

Categories: Wireless carriers

Dysfunctional international mobile market

Posted Thu 4 March 2010 @ 9:03 p.m. by Ernie

Here's a really good analysis of what's wrong with the international mobile phone market, released today by INTUG, the International Telecommunications Users Group of which TUANZ is a member.Much of it, and especially the sections about international mobile roaming, will resonate strongly with TUANZ members.So too will the plea (para 6.3) for regulators around the world to follow the lead of the European Commission in working toward Bill and Keep mobile termination rates. As the Report notes, in...

Categories: TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement - InternetNZ puts pressure on!

Posted Thu 4 March 2010 @ 8:19 p.m. by Ernie

Really interesting move the last couple of days.The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has been the elephant in the room while various governments have been working through Copyright issues, and especially Internet piracy. Despite the softer stance our government has taken on the infamous Section 92a, if New Zealand signs ACTA there is a risk the government might have to revert to draconian laws again.And the debate world-wide around ACTA has been held in conditions of surprising secrecy, attracting...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

Should network reliability be reported on independently?

Posted Thu 4 March 2010 @ 7:54 p.m. by Ernie

A while ago on this blog I noted that Telecom's is by no means the only network to fail or go down from time to time.A TUANZ member in the health sector has emailed reinforcing my comment, and made a suggestion that I think should be taken seriously. I quote:"The recent XT outages have demonstrated to us all that cellular communications is an important part of society, and as such we rely on the technology for business, emergency assistance, and social interactions - arguably werely on it too much...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Wireless carriers

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Drop the Rate Mate - Matthew Hooton vs Clare Curran

Posted Tue 2 March 2010 @ 9:54 a.m. by Ernie

There's a stoush been going on about a comment attributed to "Drop the Rate, Mate" campaign spokesman Matthew Hooton in yesterday's issue of "Communications Day."Hooton was reported as saying "We’ve spoken to members of the previous Labour government who feel they were bluffed by the ferocious corporate lobbyists working for the big telcos."Clare Curran responded with a savage blog posting which accused Hooton of attempting to position the Labour Party on MTRs.Hooton replied to the...

Categories: Regulatory | Wireless carriers

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Reflections on a hellish week for Telecom and its customers

Posted Mon 1 March 2010 @ 4:23 a.m. by Ernie

The tsunami warning came as a bit of a relief yesterday. After a solid week when telecommunications was in the news in unfavourable ways, it was good to have this sector off the front page for a day at least – though a lot of people were fervently hoping that if the tsunami proved to be for real, XT would last the distance!The week in telecommunications started on Monday with a disappointing split decision from the Commerce Commission on mobile termination rates. TUANZ said the Commission had...

Categories: Broadband | Fixed line carriers | Light relief | Vendors | Wireless carriers

"Ed Talks" event will interest those with a stake in ICT in education

Posted Sun 28 February 2010 @ 11:29 p.m. by Ernie

We seldom publicise other organisations' events on here, but this one in the education field is worth making an exception.Coming up on March 26th at Te Papa is a one-day "EDtalks Symposium - Leading Minds, Creating Futures". This symposium features sixteen 20 minute presentations focusing on "current trends in learning enabled through the smart use of technologies, and the related interface between education and business". The line up of presenters is impressive, drawing on the university...

Categories: Broadband | Education | Events

Revolutionising NZ education with fibre

Posted Thu 25 February 2010 @ 12:35 p.m. by Ernie

I’m having two interesting days here in Rotorua at Core Education’s annual http://www.core-ed.net/learningatschool. It’s a big event – 1300 participants including teachers, principals, education administrators, and ever-hopeful equipment vendors. ’m here exploring where TUANZ can best put our energies in this sector. We’ve achieved our goal of a national plan to roll out ultra fast connectivity with government money in support – there are a lot of bridges still to cross but there are good people...

Impound Reynolds' passport!

Posted Thu 25 February 2010 @ 7:43 a.m. by Ernie

The government should impound Paul Reynolds' passport so he can't leave New Zealand.Telecom has had a week from hell. A service like XT is intrinsic to this country's economy. Failure impacts the nation, not just the company. The scale of the problem is enormous and it should never have happened.But let's park that obvious fact for a moment, and look at Telecom’s response.Reynolds' handling of the crisis this week has been magnificent. He's fronted this issue at every step. He's been direct...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Vendors | Wireless carriers

Split decision form ComCom on MTR

Posted Mon 22 February 2010 @ 9:27 a.m. by Ernie

Today's long awaited Commerce Commission recommendation to the Government on Mobile Termoination Rates is against regulation. It's a split decision.Telecommunications Commissioner Dr Ross Patterson, and Associate Commissioner Gowan Pickering, recommend acceptance of the voluntary offers from Vodafone and Telecom. Commissioner Anita Mazzoleni has recoreded a dissenting view - she prefers the government regulate.More reaction from TUANZ later today.

Categories: Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

Mobile Termination - tomorrow is D Day

Posted Sun 21 February 2010 @ 11:44 a.m. by Ernie

Tomorrow morning, before the markets open, the Commerce Commission is likely to release its report to Minister Joyce on mobile termination. That's the word on the street anyway.Its a little while since TUANZ wrote to the Commission asking for this issue to be addressed. Seven years actually. That shows the ferocity of the lobbying from mobile operators over that time. The Commission has two options. It can take up the voluntary undertakings given by the three mobile operators - 2Degrees, Telecom...

Categories: Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

Not only Telecom is hard to contact - now its Vodafone

More XT woes last night

Posted Tue 16 February 2010 @ 2:14 p.m. by Ernie

Yet again, an outage in XT. Not so big this time - but big enough. Big enough that if it hadn't been for the two big earlier ones it would probably have made the front pages. Small enough that it may disappear under the radar.Telecom's statement says it affected SMS services, with a much smaller level of disruption to voice traffic. They attribute it to an unusual pattern of text traffic.Maybe so. Maybe it was a flood of spam. But aren't mobile networks designed to manage that?I really feel for the...

Categories: Broadband | Wireless carriers

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Posted Thu 11 February 2010 @ 3:32 p.m. by Ernie

With ripples from the XT outage still spreading and detailed explanations still elusive, it seems Vodafone are experiencing some gremlins as well.Last Sunday afternoon it seems, Vodafone customers nationwide were unable to download data over either the 3g or 2g networks. The outage lasted more than an hour. (So much for 3g/2g redundancy!)Then on Monday I heard of an outage on their mobile network in part of South Auckland.And yesterday a TUANZ staff member reported loss of both landline and...

Categories: Wireless carriers

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Mobile termination - Telecom makes a small move

Posted Thu 11 February 2010 @ 3:06 p.m. by Ernie

There’s been another small move in the mobile termination debate this morning. It's about the voluntary undertakings that the mobile carriers are offering as an alternative to regulation. Telecom has pushed out the start date of its voluntary glide path, from 1 April 2010 to 1 October 2010. The background is this. For the Commission to accept undertakings in this situation where there is a great deal of reciprocal business, it's crucial that the undertakings are broadly aligned. Until now the timing...

Categories: Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

Great job going at TUANZ!

Posted Thu 11 February 2010 @ 2:28 p.m. by Ernie

TUANZ is looking for a top class, very energetic Business Development Manager to join our small but perfectly formed team in Takapuna. If you know anyone interested, please refer them to this ad on Seek. Thanks.

Categories: TUANZ policy

"Engaged," XT, and getting through to Telecom

Posted Thu 11 February 2010 @ 12:14 p.m. by Ernie

Here's an interesting customer experience from Christchurch.Willie (surname withheld but I declare a personal connection) owns a business that has several mobiles and has been a loyal customer of Telecom since the beginning.Willie has one very specific requirement. He doesn't want cellular voice mail. If he's on the line he wants callers to get the old fashioned "engaged" tone. (Remember it?) His logic is fair enough - with "engaged" I ring you, get "engaged", and call you back later - total...

Categories: Light relief | Wireless carriers

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Numbering governance - TUANZ lodges a response

Posted Wed 10 February 2010 @ 3:47 p.m. by Ernie

Governance of the New Zealand phone numbering system is about to change! We've suffered a decade of the flawed Number Administration Deed - a relic of the days when even something as basic as numbers was the arena for confrontation and game-playing.Now, carriers willing, the governance of numbering is to be moved into its natural home, the TCF, which published a proposal for a new regime back in December..Submissions on the TCF's proposal closed late last week. TUANZ has now published...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

Fibre responses lodged

Posted Tue 2 February 2010 @ 8:57 p.m. by Ernie

Friday last marked a huge milestone in New Zealand's telecommunications journey. Invitations to Participate in the government's $1.5 billion ultra fast broadband initiative closed.The Proposals themselves will remain under wraps for a while, but some of the participants have issued statements outlining what they have put forward. Rather than repeat what has already been covered in the media, here are links. PARTICIPANTS' MEDIA RELEASESRegional Fibre GroupTelecomVectorMEDIA COVERAGEComputerworld...

Telecom compensation offer for XT outage unveiled

Posted Tue 2 February 2010 @ 4:32 p.m. by Ernie

Here's Telecom's package, unveiled earlier this afternoon.Bottom line: for people who've had major dislocation to their families, lives or businesses, it just isn't possible to compensate in a meaningful way with cash. Therefore any financial compensation is a gesture.And as a gesture, I think this is at the upper end of reasonable expectations.TUANZ is still focused on the transparency of the independent review. We want user representation in there when they lift the bonnet, so there can be...

Categories: Broadband | Wireless carriers

European business users press for more regulatory attention

Posted Tue 2 February 2010 @ 2:48 a.m. by Ernie

INTUG, the International Telecommunications Users Group of which TUANZ is an active member, has for some time been pressing the European Commission to recognise the fundamentally different character of business user markets from consumer markets. The difference in needs is especially apparent in the EU because of the pan-European character of commerce, and the strong presence of head offices of multi national corporations who desire to purchase their telecommunications on a European-wide or...

Categories: Broadband | Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Regulatory | Wireless carriers

XT fixed - everyone back on line

Posted Sat 30 January 2010 @ 4:16 p.m. by Ernie

That's it. At 10pm last night (Friday.)A lot of very relieved customers, and weary Telecom and Alcatel Lucent people out there.The Herald has it covered.

Categories: Wireless carriers