If there was ever an example for the telco sector of just how badly it has alienated the country, it can be found in today’s Sunday Star Times.
The front page lead is a confused beat-up about Telecom’s NGN not working in a power cut and so making it impossible to dial 111. The third paragraph in the story mentions a revamp of the 111 system and a storm in Canterbury - I read it five times before I concluded that these two events had little to do with the NGN currently being rolled out at a glacial speed by Telecom. But I sympathize with the reporters who wrote the story. Telecom’s NGN is a kind of mirage - even those of us who regularly write about this stuff have a hard time getting a sense of where it’s at and what it’s going to mean. When I last took a look, Telecom Wholesale had put ADSL+2 equipment into three exchanges and Paul Reynolds was telling a UK television reporter he’ll be doing a full review of the rollout when he hits town as the new CEO next month.
On the second page of the SST is an editorial by Cate Brett in which she writes about Fonterra’s upcoming payout. Described by many as a pot of white gold, one zealous bank economist (no doubt with his eye on farmer’s bank accounts) suggests its causing a rethink about what New Zealand has to do to return to the top half of the OECD.
“There is something dangerously alluring about the idea we might be able to forget about the “knowledge wave economy” and hunker down on the farm and wait for the good times to return,” writes Brett.
So much for the digital future!
Then, on page 10, columnist Finlay MacDonald puts the boot into Xtra’s Bubble and uses the fiasco to point out how dreadful the telco industry is in customer service: “As a friend put it, in the process of them trying to turn all the Corollas into BMWs, everyone ended up walking.”
Ernie and I charted the woeful Bubble saga in Downstream last week but when I saw the product on Thursday I couldn’t help but be impressed. Photo sharing sites and RSS feeds might be old hat for techies but they aren’t for everyday users. I was assured by Telecom staff that there are plenty of learning tools pitched at a general audience to get them hooked onto these new services which might just improve their lives.
Pushing Web 2.0 tools onto such a massive group of broadband subscribers will surely drive demand for faster broadband and cheaper bandwidth. This will in turn make the need for massive upgrades like the NGN more urgent and desirable. And articles in which something as surmountable as working out how to make a 111 call during a power cut when the lines are eventually switched to an IP network, will actually make sense.
There’s a small army of PR workers in the telco industry - the challenge for them now is to use their talents to broaden the appeal of broadband.