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Xtra finds Yahoo, MSN goes to ACP

Posted Wed 28 February 2007 @ 9:36 a.m. by Sarah

On the morning of the media launch of Yahoo!Xtra, a press release has arrived confirming Microsoft’s new online direction. The company’s site www.msn.co.nz will provide a similar information and entertainment service, using content from ACP Media and ninemsn in Australia. It has also formed a partnership with TV3, job site Seek and online sports site Sportal.There is a real battle lining up around online content delivery, with four large sites NZ Herald, Stuff, Yahoo!Xtra and now MSN, offering...

Categories: Innovation

Bold New Broadband Plan for Wellington

Posted Wed 28 February 2007 @ 5:49 a.m. by Ernie

The Wellington City Council has unveiled a plan to roll out fast Internet right through the city and suburbs. It will use the city's trolley bus wiring to extend the highly successful fibre network owned by Citylink beyond the CBD, to encompass the whole of the city and suburbs. Funding may involve a public private partnership. This has the potential to restore Wellington's position as New Zealand's leader in the race to be a true digital city.TUANZ supported the Council last October, in...

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

Anti-Spam Act Passed

Posted Wed 28 February 2007 @ 5:39 a.m. by Ernie

The Anti-Spam Bill passed its third reading in parliament yesterday. This brings New Zealand into line with most developed countries. There has been concern that if New Zealand lagged behind in outlawing spam we could become a haven for spammers, and that loophole has now been closed. TUANZ welcomes this.

Categories: ISPs | TUANZ policy

Huge leap in public awareness of telecommunications issues

Posted Tue 27 February 2007 @ 1:53 p.m. by Ernie

Public awareness about the increasingly crucial economic role of communications technology, and the crying need for New Zealand to lift our act, has never been higher in my experience.Part of my role involves promoting public understanding of the issues dear to the heart of TUANZ. This involves periodical outside speaking commitments. Last night, for example, I gave a presentation to the Remuera Rotary Club. Once again I was flabbergasted at the depth of the questioning -...

Categories: Education | Innovation | Regulatory | TUANZ policy

Mayhem in Aussie telecommunications debate!

Posted Sun 25 February 2007 @ 12:09 p.m. by Ernie

Australia is in the thick of an unseemly telecommunications brawl involving Telstra, the ACCC and the federal government. In response ATUG, the Australian telecommunications Users Group, has released a well-reasoned defence of the role of regulation in the industry.That the whole principle of industry-specific regulation should come into question at all in this modern age seems inexplicable to those of us who have explored in depth the needs of users and the unique characteristics of this complex...

Categories: Events | Fixed line carriers | Regulatory

Cheap IP calls on mobile phones could come!

Posted Sun 25 February 2007 @ 11:09 a.m. by Ernie

In an action that could open the way for cheap IP calls on mobile phones, Skype has just invoked an ancient US legal precedent known as the "Carterfone Rules" in an attempt to force carriers to cease blocking its services.The principle behind the Rules is that consumers should be able to hook up any device they like to the network so long as it does not damage the network in a technical, rather than commercial sense. The logic is clear - I can drive whatever car I want on the highway as...

Categories: Innovation | Regulatory | Wireless carriers

Telecom's Broadband Blunder Diminishes Confidence in the Industry - TUANZ

Posted Thu 22 February 2007 @ 10:59 a.m. by Ernie

Unbelievable! Telecom brought "Go Live" - the king of all their broadband plans - to market late last year . But they mucked up. Their terms said they reserved the right to constrain the speeds of users who drew extreme amounts of data. But today they announced that somebody within Telecom misunderstood and constrained the speeds for all the 60,000 customers.Here's how TUANZ responded.What do you think? Are we being too harsh? Comments welcome.

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | TUANZ policy

Trouble Finding a "New Webb"

Posted Thu 22 February 2007 @ 6:35 a.m. by Ernie

Today's Herald affirms what everyone suspected - the Government is having trouble finding replacements for two high-profile regulators.The good news is we will have Douglas Webb's services for a while yet. The government is very, very, very lucky he is willing to mind the shop.The comments by Bill English in my opinion are both right, and wrong.His criticism that the government has been too ready to criticise when it has disagreed with regulatory decisions. has merit. Hopefully that point...

Categories: Regulatory | TUANZ policy

Telecom Regulated Bitstream Price to Fall?

Posted Wed 21 February 2007 @ 9:23 p.m. by Ernie

The Commerce Commission has this morning released a draft determination that should lead to a lowering of the price ISPs pay Telecom for its regulated bitstream service. The Commission initially priced the service at $28.04 a month, but in the wake of major price reductions by Telecom retail last October, Ihug and Call Plus asked for a reconsideration.The draft includes an illustrative example that pre-dates the October retail changes, and which on the face of it would drop the ISPs'...

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

Blogging from Aotea Square

Posted Wed 21 February 2007 @ 8:31 a.m. by Sarah

Late last year, Telecom launched an upgrade to its mobile 3G broadband service – the rev a data card. I attended the launch and was given the Sierra Wirelss AirCard 595 (there I’ve got the product in – hope I’ve spelt it right) to try out. So, here I am three months later, blogging in Aotea Square running speed tests and keeping a wary eye the teenagers nearby who to have taken an interest in how much my laptop costs. According to the Telecom press release the EVDO rev a offers max download speeds...

Categories: Wireless carriers

Nortel and Microsoft at TUANZ "After Fives"

Posted Tue 20 February 2007 @ 6:42 p.m. by Ernie

Helen Robinson, Managing Director of Microsoft's New Zealand operation, and her Nortel counterpart Rob Spray, are on the TUANZ "After Fives" circuit this month. They presented in Christchuirch last night, and again in Wellington to a TUANZ breakfast audience - including your bleary-eyed blogger - this morning.Nortel and Microsoft have formed the innovative communications alliance - a unique combination of telco and IT vendor - to simplify and enhance how people work together. The secret is to engineer...

Categories: Events | Innovation | Vendors

Oodles of Progress From Carriers Forum

Posted Tue 20 February 2007 @ 6:34 p.m. by Ernie

The Telecommunications Carriers Forum has this afternoon posted its latest Broadsheet. Heaps of progress on the Consumer Complaints, Number Portability and Local Loop Unbundling projects. As reported in "Downstream" earlier the TCF has made great strides over recent months and is now a slick, effective self-regulatory adjunct to the Commerce Commission regime.

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

A glimpse into the NGN world

Posted Tue 20 February 2007 @ 12:00 p.m. by Sarah

News that Telecom will finally be installing ADSL2+ technology into exchanges, together with the convergent applications being talked about on the After 5s circuit this week, had me rifling through old notebooks to find out what an NGN network might mean for the end user.Last year I attended a Fibre Forum discussion in Sydney hosted by the Communications Alliance (the TCF equivalent in Australia). One of the speakers was Chris Ford who was then COO of Lucent for Australia and NZ. He told the audience...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Vendors | Wireless carriers

Photo of cable ducts beneath Queen Street

Posted Mon 19 February 2007 @ 10:09 a.m. by Sarah

These ducts carrying TelstraClear’s fibre (purple ducts in the corner) and Telecom’s fibre and copper (grey ducts in foreground) are buried beneath what is arguably the busiest traffic intersection in New Zealand – the corner of Queen St and Victoria St. This photo was taken last week and shows the cable ducts that have to be realigned to fit into an underground concrete tree pit that is being built as part of a major upgrade of Queen Street.

Categories: Fixed line carriers

A Small De-Merit for the Police!

Posted Mon 19 February 2007 @ 7:45 a.m. by Ernie

I'm a great admirer of the way government agencies, central and local, have led New Zealand on line. But I have a small flea in the ear for the Police.This morning I had two fines to pay. I should explain that I'm not a rabid law breaker! The speed camera ticket wasn't me - another family member (who in the interests of marital harmony I won't name) was using my car at the time. The parking fine in Auckland city was, sadly, my fault.I went on line to pay both. Auckland City...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | Light relief

Fast-Track Naked DSL, TUANZ Urges Regulator

Posted Mon 19 February 2007 @ 5:19 a.m. by Ernie

TUANZ has urged Telecommunications Commissioner Douglas Webb to give priority to Naked DSL when planning his work programme for this year. Our letter to the Commissioner follows his attendance at a meeting of the TUANZ Board last week at which he outlined the elements of work required to bring the unbundled local loop and naked DSL to fruition.TUANZ is of the view that Naked DSL offers a "quick win" for users who, despite the wide scope of the policy shift of December 2006, are likely to...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | ISPs | Regulatory | TUANZ policy

TelstraClear Losing Ground

Posted Fri 16 February 2007 @ 9:47 a.m. by Ernie

The DomPost today reports that TelstraClear's turnover fell 4% last year because of a significant fall in call revenue from lower use and fewer customers. That is bad news for New Zealand users who want to see a strong challenger in the fixed line market.But we should not be entirely surprised. Regular feedback to TUANZ continues to show ongoing customer service issues at TelstraClear, as well as some other new entrant fixed line carriers. These occur especially in situations where there are...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Regulatory | TUANZ policy

Broadband figures for CallPlus but not ihug

Posted Fri 16 February 2007 @ 9:21 a.m. by Sarah

In order to find out how the tier two and tier two telcos are poised to take advantage of the LLU environment they fought so long and so hard for, I’m in the process of updating the broadband and subscriber numbers that were published in Topics last year. Last year Annette Presley wouldn’t disclose the number of broadband subscribers CallPlus has, but this year marketing manager Mark Callandar was more forthcoming, and offered up the following stats: 30,000 broadband subscribers, 45,000 dialup subscribers,...

Categories: ISPs

TUANZ Board Meeting Today

Posted Thu 15 February 2007 @ 7:24 a.m. by Ernie

The governing body of TUANZ, our Board, is meeting today in South Auckland. There is a host of telecommunications policy issues on the agenda as well as the routine governance of TUANZ. The Board is elected at the AGM each year and comprises 12 people from among the wider membership.

Categories: TUANZ policy

TeamTalk Chasing Acquisitions

Posted Thu 15 February 2007 @ 7:13 a.m. by Ernie

TeamTalk told National Radio this morning that it is talking to a number of parties about further acquisitions in the wake of its purchse of CityLink. The previously low key company has hit the news a lot in recent months, including appointing ex-Telecom government relations boss Bruce Parkes to its board. I wonder what will happen to the "open network" ethic of CityLink under the new owners.TUANZ members will recall the superb presentation CityLink gave to our "After...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | ISPs | Vendors | Wireless carriers

Should kids be given mobile phones?

Posted Wed 14 February 2007 @ 1:59 p.m. by Sarah

Is giving a cell phone to a child as young as seven appropriate? American educator Miguel Guhlin, a keynote speaker at the TUANZ Education Conference next month, sees merit in giving primary school kids a cell phone.“We have to grow up with technology; we have to learn how to use it appropriately and responsibly. If we don’t have those kinds of conversations with children – then when they’re exposed to cell phones at 14 it just means that they’re going to make bigger mistakes than they might have...

Categories: Education

Posted Wed 14 February 2007 @ 9:31 a.m. by Sarah

Following the official launch of the TUANZ blogs on Friday, when a broadcast was sent out to members, we can report healthy visitor numbers. On Monday alone, 913 unique visitors looked at 12 820 pages – that’s an average of about 14 page views per visitor.

Categories: TUANZ policy

Yet Again - Telecomms in Speech from the Throne

Posted Wed 14 February 2007 @ 8:40 a.m. by Ernie

For the second consecutive year and as predicted in "Downstream" yesterday, telecommunications has featured in the Prime Ministerial address at the opening of parliament. This time mobile joins the fixed network in receiving a mention. The Herald has a good summary this morning - though why do they keep alluding to Theresa's "confusion" comments????There is also to be an ICT Summit run by the Government later this year.The full relevant text is below."The Digital FutureLast year's far reaching...

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

Aussie User Conference Looming

Posted Wed 14 February 2007 @ 6:29 a.m. by Ernie

The Australian Telecommunications Users Group is holding its annual conference in Sydney 7/8 March. TUANZ members with an interest in goings-on across the ditch, as always, are welcome - if you let me know I might be able to swing members' rates for you.With Aussie telecommunications having degenerated towards a cheap soap opera, I'm picking a lot of interest this year.

Categories: Events | Regulatory

Crockett calls for caution

Posted Tue 13 February 2007 @ 10:55 a.m. by Sarah

Had a chat with Matt Crockett, general manager at Telecom Wholesale, yesterday about an article I’m writing for Topics about Number Portability. Apparently it’s costing Telecom $45 million and 120 staff members have been employed full time on it for a year. “I don’t want to question whether or not Number Portability was the right thing to do, it’s just that things like a customer taking one number from one place to another sounds like an easy thing to do but it will literally take hundreds of peoples’...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Regulatory

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