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WorldMode phones – will they roam to Telecom’s new mobile network?

Posted Thu 31 January 2008 @ 10:53 a.m. by Sarah

Telecom mobile customers might want to hold fire on their WorldMode handset purchase, as it appears the Samsung model currently on the market won’t be capable of roaming on the new network the telco is launching later this year. However, new handsets being introduced into the market soon will have this dual-network capability. User Alan Waller emailed TUANZ concerned that the WorldMode handsets currently on the market will become redundant once the new network is built. “Why don't Telecom just...

Categories: Vendors | Wireless carriers

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Investment debate needs far wider participation - TUANZ

Posted Thu 31 January 2008 @ 10:45 a.m. by Ernie

Among the usual barrage of just-before-Christmas-under-the-radar releases from the government was an "open letter" from minister Cunliffe to "the telecommunications industry" inviting recipients to take part in a dialogue on investment incentives.TUANZ was invited to participate in the process and comment on the terms of reference.Our response, along with the Minister's Open Letter, are on this site. The feedback we received is that the distribution of the Minister's open letter has been very limited....

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Mobile pricing - Vodafone claims a breakthrough

Posted Tue 29 January 2008 @ 8:12 p.m. by Ernie

As recently as yesterday the DomPost published an opinion piece by TUANZ in which we referred to, among other things, the high pricing of mobile phones in New Zealand.Today Vodafone NZ has issued a release saying its consumer prices are now in the top (cheaper) half of the OECD.If it's true it's great news. Consumers have been waiting a long time for this.But I'm not about to celebrate yet. The figures Vodafone bases its announcement on are not in the public arena and their summary can't be...

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

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Reject Telecom Separation Offer, TUANZ Advises Minister

Posted Mon 28 January 2008 @ 11:55 a.m. by Ernie

TUANZ last friday lodged our Submission on Telecom's draft final Undertakings on Operational Separation. We have asked the Minister not to approve Telecom's offer, and instead to issue a determination that takes account of the many shortcomings we have identified. Here is the full Submission.

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Will Users really be better off with Naked DSL?

Posted Mon 28 January 2008 @ 10:14 a.m. by Sarah

If 2007 was the year that the much-anticipated regulatory reforms were drafted, 2008 is the year in which they will be enacted. But will the New Zealand User, who has waited patiently through seemingly endless rounds of determinations, finally get cheaper calls and faster broadband? First off the blocks is Naked DSL – the ability for a competing telco to provide services over the incumbent’s copper network. This is where ISPs such as CallPlus and WorldxChange can make a difference with their innovative...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Regulatory

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Broadband a defining 2008 business issue, leaders say

Posted Fri 25 January 2008 @ 1:09 p.m. by Ernie

Today's Business Herald asks twelve business leaders questions about 2008 including "what will be the defining business issue" and "what will be the year's big technological advance."Three of the twelve have named "Broadband." BNZ Chief Economist Tony Alexander says "maybe decent broadband speeds for NZ users."Mark Thomas of Right Hemisphere describes "universal, low cost, high bandwidth, always on Internet access for all" as the defining business issue for 2008.Steve Crow, boss of Vixen...

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RIP ihug

Posted Wed 23 January 2008 @ 2:32 p.m. by Sarah

So the ihug brand has gone. Its death notice printed on page 3 of today's Business Herald. No surprises of course. In August last year ihug CEO Mark Rushworth told Downstream that it was really only a matter of time before ihug became completely subsumed by the Vodafone brand.And after all, what's in a name?"Brands come and go but people and culture remain the same," he said.I wonder if the band of loyal ihug broadband subscribers (30,000? 40,000? - who knows, they stopped being open about the number...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs

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New Zealand "an unexpected broadband laggard" - The Economist

Posted Tue 22 January 2008 @ 8:39 a.m. by Ernie

With commendable brevity and precision "The Economist" of 17 January has summed up the variances around the developed world in broadband uptake.This interesting article "Open Up These Highways" should be compulsory reading for everyone involved in public policy, and especially the few remaining digital cynics. The article singles New Zealand out, alongside the USA, for "a lack of competition-boosting oversight." It notes that broadband thrives where there is a mix of competition and active regulation...

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Closure of Aussie CDMA network deferred three months

Posted Mon 21 January 2008 @ 6:53 a.m. by Ernie

Australian government action has resulted in three months deferral of the close down of Telstra's CDMA network that was scheduled to happen next week. See this report from the ABC.This will give breathing space to Telecom NZ customers who roam to Australia and were preparing themselves in a hurry to purchase or borrow new handsets.Meanwhile a short informal survey by TUANZ suggests that the new handsets being offered to Telecom customers are in plentiful supply, so the alert we posted...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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Local government planning a telecommunications event

Posted Mon 21 January 2008 @ 4:08 a.m. by Ernie

With local government increasingly being looked to as a key participant in next generation telecommunications policy and investment, Local Government NZ is stepping up and running a Forum on the topic next month. It is a local government event, but LGNZ is inviting central government, industry and other stakeholders to attend. The focus is on the role that local government should be taking going forward to ensure that every New Zealander has access to cheaper faster broadband. The ...

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The clash between LLU and cabinetisation - Internet NZ

Posted Sun 20 January 2008 @ 8:04 p.m. by Ernie

Internet NZ has released a report on the "train wreck" that has occurred because of the lack of a time interval between LLU and the emergence of cabinetisation. It makes some useful points.The issue came to light in November and was covered on "Downstream" at that time.At this point the initiative lies with the ISPs and other new entrants who are directly impacted by the coincidence of timing between cabinetising and LLU in many exchanges. It will be interesting to see their views on the Report's...

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

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The future is fibre – TUANZ in the Herald

Posted Fri 18 January 2008 @ 9:32 a.m. by Sarah

The copper network may finally be opened up to competitors and Telecom’s separation well underway, but the future is fibre, not copper, and it’s now time to turn our attention to the creation of open access fibre networks. So argues TUANZ CEO Ernie Newman in today’s Herald. “As telecommunications increases its role as a dominant force in our lives, a small country like New Zealand has a vast amount to gain in productivity and lifestyle terms from taking the extra step to be an early adopter.In...

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

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Branding of Telecom's access network services unit announced

Posted Wed 16 January 2008 @ 7:37 a.m. by Ernie

The newest name on the telecommunications block is Chorus. Telecom announced it a few minutes ago.This time we are serious. For the benefit of those good "Downstream" readers who believed Sarah's posting yesterday - it was a spoof. I'm sorry if we misled you. I take our blogs very seriously and absolutely won't stand for any form of humour on them (nor anywhere else in the workplace for that matter). Confidentially, I'm going to give Sarah a jolly good ticking off for posting it.Seriously,...

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Telecom names Access Network business – Downstream exclusive

Posted Tue 15 January 2008 @ 8:50 a.m. by Sarah

Telecom is set to unveil the new branding for its Access Network business at a special media conference tomorrow. However Downstream has learnt, via a well placed source, what that branding is and can reveal that the new name for the division will be Last Mile. The source told Downstream that Last Mile represents not only the physical part of the network that this division is responsible for (ie the delivery of services from the exchange to the customer) it also has metaphorical significance. “It...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Light relief

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A simple guide to broadband and cabinetisation

Posted Tue 15 January 2008 @ 7:56 a.m. by Ernie

Well done, The Herald, for this excellent simple guide to cabinetisation published this morning. I really feel for non-technical people out there who just want adequate Internet access and are thoroughly bamboozled by all the talk about loop shortening, cabinetisation, ULL, UBS, co-location, and the rest. Let alone complex issues such as the inherent conflict between the benefits of competition and those of cabinetisation. I'm not always a great fan of the trend to illustrate news stories with sketches...

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TUANZ Board member in high profile career move

Posted Tue 15 January 2008 @ 7:42 a.m. by Ernie

Commercial lawyer Geraline Knox, a member of the Board of TUANZ since 2007, is making a major career change to become co-host of the new hour-long commercial-free TVNZ news bulletin on Freeview. Today's Herald has the story.Congratulations and good luck to Geraline in the role. She is a lady of many talents, having had earlier experience as a TV presenter in Malaysia and a marketer in the fashion industry, as well as attaining a masters degree in commercial law. The Board has...

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Mobile roaming in Australia – the business user’s dilemma

Posted Mon 14 January 2008 @ 11:56 a.m. by Sarah

While the reliability of mobile roaming across the Tasman made the news over the Christmas break, the high cost of roaming remains an ongoing bugbear. In his Geekzone blog editor Mauricio Freitas notes that mobile data roaming in Australia costs the NZ user anything from $8 MB to $30M! At a summer barbecue I spoke to one business user who queried me on the best way to roam in Australia. He spends half his time over the ditch, and wondered if it was worthwhile him opening an Australian mobile phone...

Categories: Wireless carriers

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What will you use 100Mbps for at home?

Posted Mon 14 January 2008 @ 8:14 a.m. by Ernie

Broadband at 30Mbps or more to 40% of homes, by 2010. That's the vision of Spanish incumbent Telefonica. Presenting to analysts at its annual investor day late last year, the company predicted that by 2010 more than 40% of Spanish homes will have 30Mbps or more delivered by fibre, and 25% will have 100Mbps. Telefonica claims the figures are conservative, the fibre will be profitable, and they are starting now. And since then Telefonica in Brazil has launched a similar initiative!Most...

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

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Compulsory Internet Access for Every School Student?

Posted Wed 9 January 2008 @ 4:28 p.m. by Ernie

It had to come! In the UK there is now serious talk of requiring parents, with government support, to provide every school student with Internet access and IT equipment at home, according to this report in The Guardian last week.What better way could there be to rapidly improve a country's IT literacy as well as reduce the digital divide?Futuristic? Perhaps. Practical, revolutionary and inevitable? Yes.Its interesting that the UK report surfaced the same day that the media in New Zealand unearthed...

Categories: Education | Innovation | TUANZ policy | Vendors

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Major Roaming Disruption - "Out of our hands" says Vodafone. "Bollocks!" says TUANZ.

Posted Sat 5 January 2008 @ 1:10 p.m. by Ernie

That Vodafone New Zealand customers would be deprived of service in Australia for over a week, in the middle of the summer holidays and with no end in sight, would have seemed unthinkable a year ago. Yet, it's happened. Its the latest in a run of technical glitches this year to plague New Zealand's sole GSM operator.The company's response that the problem lies with Vodafone Australia and is "out of our hands" is bollocks. What the hell has happened to caring for the customer?TUANZ...

Categories: Wireless carriers

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