TUANZ - Telecomunications Users Association Of New Zealand

TUANZ - Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand

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Posted Thu 30 October 2008 @ 1:06 p.m. by Ernie

Nice of The Herald to publish this article that I sent them earlier this week. There is quite a wave of understanding building around the opportuity that teleworking offers for economic, social and environmental benefit to employers and their staff.Don't forget our national teleworking conference the week after next - registrations here. Now's the moment to reserve your spot.

Categories: Events | Innovation | ISPs | TUANZ policy

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Telecomms disputes resolution - NZ a world leader?

Posted Thu 30 October 2008 @ 12:09 p.m. by Ernie

I've spoken on here a few times about TUANZ's very positive view of the Telecommunications Disputes Resolution Service and accompanying industry code of practice on complaints handling - both developed by the TCF with active support from TUANZ.My perspective was reinforced a couple of weeks ago at the APECTel meeting, at which I moderated a session on Stakeholder Engagement and Consultation. My part dealt specifically with mechanisms for handling consumer complaints. (Check out page 5 of this...

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Doing more with what we've got

Posted Thu 30 October 2008 @ 10:01 a.m. by Ernie

Doesn't it all feel a bit surreal? Here all are, sitting at our desks and trying to forecast and plan for 2009 and beyond while the world's economic foundations seem to be in the midst of a force 10 quake.Bernice Archer of our TUANZ team was at an international contact centre conference a few weeks ago. She reported back that the theme she picked up from delegates was that everyone expects to have to do more with what they've got. They weren't predicting a flash year ahead in terms of budgets and...

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Networks versus MVNOs

Posted Thu 30 October 2008 @ 9:20 a.m. by Ernie

So Black and White Mobile has launched! TUANZ foreshadowed this on this Blog several weeks ago.Its targeting the prepay market. It won't be appealing much to TUANZ members who are mainly "on account" large users, but no doubt it will find a welcome market especially among younger users. It deserves to succeed.Its got a complex tie-in with Aussie-listed telco M2.So lets not take anything away from Black and White. But I do have a concern about the misleading impact publicity about launches like this...

Categories: Innovation | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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Good broadband news for the long weekend!

Posted Fri 24 October 2008 @ 12:08 p.m. by Ernie

Its always nice to go away for a long weekend with good news, and the folk at the OECD in Paris have co-operated. They've released overnight their latest broadband stats showing that New Zealand, while still remaining at 19th in the OECD for per capita penetration, is now 6th for growth.As we move toward more innovative and productivity-improving uses in fields like heath, education, care of the aged, and teleworking, that is excellent news. A feather in the cap of Telecom, the rest of the industry,...

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

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Healh and IT - an opportunity awaits

Posted Fri 24 October 2008 @ 9:00 a.m. by Ernie

This week's news that three patients who needed quick health treatment suffered setbacks because their records were lost in transit between District Health Boards is a wake-up call. Clearly the huge opportunities IT offers for a more efficient health system have yet to be captured.Why, in 2008, are DHBs and the health system generally so addicted to sticking hard copy in envelopes and licking stamps? Surely health, of all sectors, is crying out for the immediacy and efficiency of all-electronic processes.Wednesday's...

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

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Kawau Island – idyllic, but something major’s missing

Posted Fri 24 October 2008 @ 8:47 a.m. by Ernie

I’m indebted to a former school mate Michael Marris, a resident of Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf, for this real life story of a local community that desperately wants broadband. (Michael claims to remember me in short pants, which shows how old he must be.) There’s no fixed line broadband facility on Kawau. In some places 3G works. There are a few satellite installations but they are seen to be slow, expensive and directionally limited. There are several discrete pockets of settlement on the...

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

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Peer review of regulator's decisions - Reynolds throws a curved ball

Posted Fri 24 October 2008 @ 7:55 a.m. by Ernie

In a wide-ranging interview with award-winning journalist Jenny Keown of The Independent, Dr Paul Reynolds has made a call for a merits-based review process sitting above the role of the Commerce Commission.His appeal seems to have come from nowhere. Elsewhere in the interview he speaks positively about several issues, describing the government reform of Telecom in 2006 as "strong and appropriate." And he talks sensibly about a need to strip away old layers of regulation - TUANZ would certainly...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Regulatory | TUANZ policy

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A powerful and very welcome message from Telecom

Posted Fri 17 October 2008 @ 4:31 a.m. by Ernie

Telecom's announcement that at last the "go" button has been pushed on the long-awaited CDMA network is notable and welcome for three reasons.First, because it will improve markedly the mobile options available to New Zealanders. Despite the battle of words between Telecom and Vodafone - with one saying it will be "New Zealand's best network" and the other dismissing it as "catch up" - the fact that Telecom is introducing world class technology will sharpen the performance of both companies.Second,...

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

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Roaming charges to the forefront at APEC

Posted Thu 16 October 2008 @ 10:39 a.m. by Ernie

Here at APECTel the Australian delegation has just presented this succinct but extremely telling summary of the problem of excessive international roaming charges and the issues surrounding them.Scroll down and take a look at the wonderful diagram showing how roaming charges compare in the Asia Pacific region vis-à-vis Europe. Notice there's quite some disparity between Telecom and Vodafone with both being a long, long way from lily white - there's far too much red in the New Zealand section...

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

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International roaming, and Voicemail

Posted Wed 15 October 2008 @ 4:44 p.m. by Ernie

I’ve always been frustrated when overseas about the idiosyncratic behaviour of mobile voice mail. It’s seemed that a lot of my callers have received audio messages saying the called party’s voicemail is not available, or words to that effect. Of course this is untrue. So I did what I should have done earlier and asked Vodafone why. Their answer is revealing and helpful. “When roaming, if your phone is switched off or you reject the call, callers should go through to Voicemail in the normal way....

Categories: Light relief | Wireless carriers

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Roaming may ruin your resources

Posted Wed 15 October 2008 @ 3:54 p.m. by Ernie

Being in Peru this week has focused my mind on roaming charges. They are not nice to think about. I started thinking about them at Lima airport on Sunday when I received a really friendly welcome message from Vodafone NZ thus: “You’ve arrived in Zone 4. To pay your standard NZ rate + $5 per minute for calls from Zone 4, get “Traveller” our zone pricing. For info go to Vodafone.co.nz/travel’ Ouch! $5 a minute might sound innocuous. But it is huge! You can ring Auntie Flo in Arrowtown maybe, ask...

Categories: ISPs | Light relief | Wireless carriers

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Rural uses of connectivity - lessons from Peru

Posted Wed 15 October 2008 @ 4:26 a.m. by Ernie

I’m in Lima, Peru this week doing my 6-monthly stint at APECTel, the telecommunications working group of the APEC economies. Its always a rich opportunity to get away from the day-to-day pressures and re-energise with updated experiences from other places, as well as refreshing TUANZ’s international network of contacts. I’m here representing the International Telecommunications Users Group, INTUG. New Zealand is represented by Dr Peter Crabtree from the MED.Yesterday INTUG coordinated an “Industry...

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

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Telework - the way of tomorrow, really good for you and your team

Posted Wed 8 October 2008 @ 3:10 p.m. by Ernie

Get used to the word "Telework." Its going to be in everyone's vocabulary over these coming months. Because:- TUANZ has written a paper on it for members and is about to launch an introductory event called Teleworking 2008- The government is keen as mustard all of a sudden, with Teleworking even featuring in the Digital Strategy 2.0- There are huge benefits for employers, employees, and the planetHere's a really short, simple summary from "Wired" of why teleworking's a great idea whose time...

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Ministerial shotgun no basis for a wedding

Posted Tue 7 October 2008 @ 2:58 p.m. by Ernie

Vodafone has signed an agreement on interconnect with NZ Communications only after being "nagged" and "harassed" by Minister Cunliffe, according to the NZ Herald.Doesn't it sound surreal? That despite the powers of regulators to dish out the necessary incentives, those of Parliament to legislate, and those of the executive to regulate, an agreement is finally signed after a Minister's "nagging" of a presumably reluctant party?In my youth we used to have "Shotgun Weddings." (Not me personally, you...

Categories: Light relief | Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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Broadband "quality and capacity divide" - NZ 35th out of 42 countries

Posted Sun 5 October 2008 @ 5:15 p.m. by Ernie

Not good! According to this report from Oxford University's Said Business School, New Zealand is eighth worst of 42 countries measured for broadband speeds. The ones behind us are Malta, Iceland, Brazil, Cyprus, Mexico, China and India. Australia came in eight places ahead of us.“The broadband gap can no longer be seen as a penetration divide,” Professor María Rosalía Vicente from University of Oviedo pointed out. “It is also a quality and capacity divide, and therefore, a divide in the range of...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Wireless carriers

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Exit Post

Posted Fri 3 October 2008 @ 12:40 p.m. by Sarah

In most jobs when you leave you’re asked to do an Exit Interview, but Ernie says I should do an Exit Post and as I always do what I’m told, here it is. Ernie and I started blogging in February 2007 and the hardest thing was deciding what to actually call them (sensibly we rejected ‘Ernie’s Post’ early in the discussion). We came up with Downstream (his suggestion) and Mouthpiece (my suggestion – it’s the one about Contact Centres) over a cup of coffee and I’ve sometimes wondered if they would have...

Categories: Light relief

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Farewell, Malcolm Alexander

Posted Fri 3 October 2008 @ 6:33 a.m. by Ernie

It was a sociable and interesting evening. A farewell dinner last night to acknowledge Malcolm Alexander's departure as Independent Chair of the Telecommunications Carriers Forum, held in a bit of style at Dine Restaurant at the Sky City Grand here in Auckland.The entire TCF Board was there along with a handful of others. The 100% turnout was testimony to the respect Malcolm is held in. They're a fun group that interacts well - n the early days you'd have had to agonise over the seating...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Wireless carriers

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Sector solutions with regulatory backup

Posted Wed 1 October 2008 @ 11:51 a.m. by Sarah

September is over, spring has arrived, daylight saving is here but I can’t imagine anyone involved in telecommunications at the Commerce Commission will be getting out to smell the roses. TUANZ submitted on three ComCom reports last month – mobile termination rates, the numbering system and Next Generation Networks. Together these three submissions have required close examination of the mobile, fixed and future direction of telecommunications in New Zealand. They also demonstrate the proactive...

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

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Telecom watch

Posted Wed 1 October 2008 @ 9:28 a.m. by Ernie

There’s a lot going on at our largest telco, and I don’t just mean in the separation and regulatory space. First, broadband. Monthly data caps and upload speeds for Telecom’s retail customers are to be increased on several popular plans. Businesses will see their caps increased 2-5 times, and some residences around 3 times. Much as TUANZ abhors data caps and wants them removed entirely, these changes are all positive and I hope they will continue. A good move by GM Broadband Ralph Brayham! Second,...

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