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Whangarei to get regional broadband - Adieu "Fraudband"

Posted Wed 30 April 2008 @ 11:01 a.m. by Ernie

"Fraudband." That's the description TUANZ Board member and Enterpriose Northland representative Jane Hindle used yesterday to desribe creaky DSL services.I love it and wish I'd thought of it first.This interview on National Radio last night tells the full story. TelstraClear along with lines company Northpower is partnering to bring a new service to Whangarei. Adiue, Fraudband in the northern hub!If it succeeds it will be good news. There have been false starts in this area so I'll stick...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | ISPs | Light relief | Vendors

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$1.5 BILLION FOR FIBRE - National ups the ante!

Posted Tue 22 April 2008 @ 2:01 p.m. by Ernie

A National government will commit $1.5 billion over six years to bring fibre to almost every home and premise in New Zealand, supported by wireless and satellite technologies. That's what leader John Key pledged today, speaking to a special lunch meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce.Tellingly, his entire speech was devoted to broadband. Nothing else - just a bit of preamble about New Zealand's infrastructure deficit, and then straight into it.Read the whole speech here.It was immensely encouraging....

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Customer transfer - example of awful service!

Posted Mon 21 April 2008 @ 10:08 a.m. by Ernie

Like the proverbial builder's house, TUANZ Board member Jane Hindle has never bothered to get around to sorting out a better deal on her own communications package. The recent increase from Telecom was the final catalyst to do some analysis and get her own house in order. The results are far from encouraging. Jane tells me she checked out the various plans on offer. Being a customer of Vodafone, TelstraClear and Telecom already, getting a better deal from one...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Wireless carriers

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TSO Review - TUANZ responds to TCF

Posted Mon 21 April 2008 @ 7:39 a.m. by Joe

TUANZ has responded to the TCF's draft report on the review of the TSO - commonly known as the Kiwi Share - with a brief letter of support - see here.

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

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Remainder of Independent Oversight Group appointed

Posted Fri 18 April 2008 @ 1:22 p.m. by Ernie

Telecom has announced the appointment of the remaining four members of the Independent Oversight Group who will monitor the Separation process. The Chair has already been named as retired High Court Judge, Hon Barry Paterson.Of the remaining four posts, two are independent and two are appointed by Telecom. These are:Independent:Dave Frow, former CEO of ECNZJerry Rickman, chartered accountant Non IndependentRon Spithill, former president of Alcatel Asia PacificTony Briscoe, GM of Telecom NZ International.The...

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

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0867 - how many "man-decades?"

Posted Fri 18 April 2008 @ 12:28 p.m. by Ernie

So the High Court has found in favour of Telecom, and against the Commerce Commission, in the infamous "0867 case."I was in my fifth month with TUANZ when 0867 broke. I'm now in my tenth year. Its taken a whisker short of nine years and an appeal is still a possibility.0867 changed the character of the ISP sector, and the competitive position of Clear, for ever. It stunned the industry. I remember sitting around a boardroom table and talking to a room full of them a few days afterwards. Never,...

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10% of energy use! You and I can help.

Posted Thu 17 April 2008 @ 10:05 a.m. by Ernie

One of the snippets I collected at a conference in Britain a few weeks ago was that IT allegedly accounts for 10% of the UK's energy use. In Germany, according to this article, its even more. It sounded a lot to me, but having talked to a few IT people these last few days I'm ready to believe it.Ironically as I heard this said in a conference room in London I recalled with some guilt that I had left my dumb terminal and monitor switched on for the full fortnight I was out of New Zealand. That...

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"Maggots" - Telstra's abuse of ACCC reaches a new low

Posted Thu 17 April 2008 @ 4:11 a.m. by Ernie

Watchers of Telstra’s sustained and intemperate attacks on the Australian government and especially the regulator, the ACCC, have been wondering where it is all going to end. Personally I thought its famous description of the ACCC as a “rogue regulator” would be enough to provoke some kind of formal reaction. Yesterday the vitriolic campaign of abuse reached new lows. According to Communications Day, Telstra’s outspoken American PR chief Dr Phil Burgess had this to say to a Sydney conference: “It’s...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Regulatory | Wireless carriers

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Did the PM mention broadband?

Posted Wed 16 April 2008 @ 9:50 p.m. by Sarah

Was driving into work on Monday and heard Sean Plunket ask the Prime Minister the most surprising question. Would it be Labour’s policy to buy back the Railways and Telecom? The PM went on to say that the government was in negotiation with Toll to buy back rail, but - despite my yelling at the radio - Sean Plunket did not mention Telecom again (where did he get that idea anyway?) Helen Clark then switched into election mode, mentioned several key planks – among them a plan to “kick start the broadband...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Regulatory | Wireless carriers

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Tourists not well served for telecomms

Posted Wed 16 April 2008 @ 8:02 p.m. by Ernie

Spare a thought for tourists to the lower South Island. Connectivity is awful!I took a (richly earned) week off last week to check out the autumn colours in places like Milford Sound, the Otago Peninsula, and Ranfurly in Central Otago.Conclusions: - cell phone coverage even just a few KM out of Dunedin on the Peninsula is almost non existent- forget cell phones completely on the Milford Road where up to 150 coach loads of tourists travel each day. Give up before you lose sight of Te Anau. What if...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Wireless carriers

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Blog famine, action feast!

Posted Wed 16 April 2008 @ 7:50 p.m. by Ernie

As our regular reader(s) will have noted we've been very light on blogs these past few days. Rest assured that Sarah and I are not deserting our posts, but there is a huge amount of action occupying our time.The TUANZ "Manifesto" - Towards leading edge connectivity - hit the political spot at a very appropriate moment. I have been busy briefing many MPs, allied organisations and other opinion leaders on the detail. Trust me - the energy that our Board and Policy Committee put into this will absolutely...

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Cheap broadband, expensive voice

Posted Fri 11 April 2008 @ 7:29 a.m. by Sarah

The Commerce Commission has released its 2007 Telecommunications Market Monitoring Report and there's plenty to read about. To sum it up in less then a sentence - cheap broadband, expensive voice - no wonder they call the latter the 'killer app'. Mobile continues to be profitable - retail revenue increased from $1.93 billion to $1.97 billion. This compares to the total fixed network retail revenue which declined from $2.99 to $2.93 billion. High mobile termination rates are a prominent...

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

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$16.95 broadband deals from Telecom

Posted Thu 10 April 2008 @ 5:20 p.m. by Sarah

The $16.95 broadband offer to dial-up customers by Telecom hasn’t received much publicity, but I was a little surprised by the full page advert I saw in the New Zealand Herald on Monday. The $16.95 deal is only for six months on the most basic broadband plan and customers are locked into a 12 month ciontract. They do however receive a 30-day money back guarantee if they decide not to go ahead with broadband. So on the one hand the deal will bring dial up customers over the broadband, and help...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Regulatory

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New trans-Tasman Cable in the PIPE line

Posted Mon 7 April 2008 @ 2:22 p.m. by Sarah

Today’s announcement by Kordia and PIPE International that they plan to build a new trans-Tasman cable has been welcomed by TUANZ. Chief executive Ernie Newman has put out a press statement, which you can read here. The key thing for users is that competition for international capacity will hopefully lower data caps, as Ernie says in the press release: “International charges are often used by service providers as a reason for high data caps. A competing international cable that connects New Zealand...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | ISPs

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TSO – progress at last

Posted Thu 3 April 2008 @ 10:22 a.m. by Sarah

The TCF has issued its report on the TSO (Telecommunications Service Obligation for Local Service), otherwise known as the Kiwishare. The report can be found online and feedback is due by 21 April. Meanwhile, Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds has written an open letter to the Minister Cunliffe about the company’s commitment to rural New Zealand. In it he promises to reach an agreement on a new TSO by 30 June. Looks like finally there is progress being made on much-needed changes to this troublesome...

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

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More bandwidth than a telco in every house

Posted Thu 3 April 2008 @ 8:36 a.m. by Sarah

Phoned David Isenberg last week to have a chat about his visit to New Zealand next month and he apologized for not being able to talk. He had his two-day conference ‘Freedom to Connect’ to prepare for and suggested we catch up after that. So I’ve just gone onto his blog to see how it’s going and found that he’s posted his opening address. Now I’m a bit of sucker for a passionate speech and this one’s a beauty. In the opening paragraph: “The Internet has been given to us. It is a miraculous gift,...

Categories: Events | Fixed line carriers | Innovation

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FibreCo Conceived

Posted Wed 2 April 2008 @ 9:28 a.m. by Ernie

The New Zealand Institute has today released the third and final piece of work in its series on broadband and fibre. It concludes that there is an urgent strategic choice to be made between the status quo that has NZ relying on Telecom for fibre investment, and a more proactive role creating a new funding and regulatory model. It recommends the latter.In general this gels beautifully with the views of TUANZ as published recently in "Towards leading-edge connectivity" although the TUANZ vision of...

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Identity theft - I fall victim!

Posted Tue 1 April 2008 @ 7:28 p.m. by Ernie

This was on the TV3 News at 6.30 last night. This is the exact, unedited version the viewers saw. Is there no shame?.

Categories: Light relief

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DomPost Praises Cunliffe

Posted Tue 1 April 2008 @ 8:43 a.m. by Ernie

Politics is a pretty thankless business everywhere, New Zealand included. So when a major daily piles praise on a Minister its worth a read.The lead editorial of the DominionPost today has an unusual accolade in its heading - "Telecom Split a Credit to Minister." It goes on to heap some quite lavish praise on David Cunliffe:"The changes are a credit to Mr Cunliffe, who has done what no communications minister before him has done despite overwhelming evidence that Telecom was using its control of...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | TUANZ policy

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