TUANZ - Telecomunications Users Association Of New Zealand

TUANZ - Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand

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Posted Sat 31 January 2009 @ 2:48 p.m. by Ernie

I shouldn't say it but I can't resist.Over Christmas the NZ Transport Agency copped some flack in the media for forgetting to go through rudimentary security processes in the Web site that collects tolls for Auckland's new Northern Gateway toll road.As a "local," and in the most constructive of spirits, I wrote this blog suggesting that if they wanted to encourage customers to deal with them through the most efficient channel - over the Web - they should also make the minimum initial deposit...

Categories: Innovation | Light relief

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VDSL2 is great, but fibre still the ultimate goal

Posted Fri 30 January 2009 @ 3:08 p.m. by Louis

While welcoming Telecom’s planned roll out of super-fast VDSL2 broadband technology, TUANZ believes that fibre to every New Zealand home, business, farm, school and marae is still the ultimate goal. In a media statement released today, TUANZ Chief Executive Ernie Newman said fibre all the way to every customer’s premises must remain as the aspiration for New Zealand. He also reiterated TUANZ’s call for a national digital architecture that would ensure a common nationwide sense of the shape of...

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

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Telecom Wholesale to deploy “super-fast” VDSL2 technology

Posted Fri 30 January 2009 @ 12:02 p.m. by Louis

Telecom Wholesale has announced today that it is rolling out “super-fast” VDSL2 (Very High-Speed Digital Subscriber Line 2) broadband technology. VDSL2 is the latest and most advanced DSL broadband standard. The company says internet users located within a kilometre from a VDSL2 enabled exchange or roadside cabinet could expect download speeds of up to 50Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps. Roadside cabinets and local telephone exchanges in towns and cities with more than 500 lines will start...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Vendors

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February is nearly here and so are the After 5s

Posted Fri 30 January 2009 @ 9:58 a.m. by Louis

I’m writing this blog in a near dazed state – not because it is Friday after a four-day week, but because I’m finding it real hard to believe that 2009 is already a month old! February will be with us before the weekend is out and that means a 12th of the year has already gone by… But it’s all good, since February marks the start of our After 5s events for 2009. The After 5s are free to TUANZ members and are held each month from February to November in Christchurch, Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland. Next...

Categories: Events | Vendors

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Will Compass direct mobile rates south?

Posted Thu 29 January 2009 @ 4:57 p.m. by Louis

Existing Compass Communications business and residential customers look set to benefit most from the company’s new mobile service. As Computerworld reported yesterday, Compass plans to launch mobile services in March, as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on the Vodafone network. However, the company did not reveal much in the article about its market strategy for the new venture. But CEO Karim Hussona told TUANZ today that Compass plans to mainly target its existing toll, fixed line and...

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

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British MTRs to get slashed

Posted Tue 27 January 2009 @ 5:21 p.m. by Louis

British consumers are the latest to look forward to lower mobile phone costs as the UK Competition Commission has ordered a reduction in mobile termination rates by April 2010. Under the ruling, UK network operators must reduce MTRs from 5.1 pence a minute to 4 pence a minute. Interestingly the cut in MTRs was advocated by one of the UK carriers – Hutchison 3G (H3G), along with dominant landline carrier, BT. H3G and BT appealed the MTRs recommended by UK regulator Ofcom arguing there was still...

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

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Telecom broadband crashes again

Posted Tue 27 January 2009 @ 4:03 p.m. by Louis

Around 10,000 Telecom broadband users have reportedly been left with intermittent internet access after a network fault in Wellington. This follows a massive broadband outage that affected 500,000 people in December and resulted in a public apology from CEO Paul Reynolds December also saw a smaller phone outage which enraged TUANZ board member Doug Wilson. It seems a faulty Wellington-based remote access node is at the heart of the latest outage, which overnight repairs failed to fix. The outage...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Vendors

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Digital Development Council minds the gaps in regional broadband

Posted Thu 22 January 2009 @ 4:28 p.m. by Louis

Gaps in regional broadband are under scrutiny by the Digital Development Council (DDC), according to a report in this week’s Computerworld. The council is reportedly looking into regional broadband initiatives to see what gaps exist and how they can be addressed. It will release a report on the regional state of broadband development in February. This is a welcome move as such a report should help inform future discussions on funding for broadband roll-out to regions with poor or no high speed...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | TUANZ policy | Vendors

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Comms networks: Yes, we can!

Posted Wed 21 January 2009 @ 4:29 p.m. by Louis

Obama-mania came close to, but failed to topple the world’s communications networks, as Barak Obama was sworn in the 44th President of the United States. Washington’s mobile phone networks largely withstood the onslaught of between one and three million cell-phone toting patriots who descended on the city for the inauguration. Although coverage was reportedly spotty with text messages taking up to an hour to reach their destination and voice calls near impossible, the networks did not crash under...

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

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Broadband should top Key's infrastructure list - Herald Business Editor

Posted Tue 20 January 2009 @ 7:07 p.m. by Ernie

Liam Dann, Editor of the Business Herald, is onto it! In this column he makes a compelling and succinct argument why the government should put broadband at the top of its list for infrastructure investment.Dann is just so right. No offence to roads, but they tend to support the old economy more than the new - they move heavy, mass produced freight, leading to lower paid jobs in forestry and manufacturing.Broadband by contrast, supports the new economy. It will help in a whole raft of national...

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

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Operators submit mobile termination undertakings to ComCom

Posted Thu 15 January 2009 @ 3:41 p.m. by Louis

Incumbent mobile phone providers Vodafone and Telecom, along with yet to launch newcomer, NZ Communications, have furnished the Commerce Commission with their respective undertakings around mobile termination access services. The companies have submitted the undertakings as part of the Commission’s current investigation into whether mobile termination access services, which include mobile-to-mobile voice termination, fixed-to-mobile voice termination and short-message-service termination, should...

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

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RIP Ferrit

Posted Mon 12 January 2009 @ 1:44 p.m. by Ernie

Ferrit is closing down. Telecom's online shopping mall, for which hopes were so high in its early days, will be no more from later this week.Always controversial, Ferrit's demise will not be a surprise. And to the extent that Ferrit was an attempt to counter the legendary success of TradeMe, it was never going to win.Telecom Retail CEO Alan Gourdie says the company's retail strategy these days is to build in the key areas of mobile, broadband, and ICT.It makes sense. As Gourdie says, the...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | Vendors

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Nonsense Copyright law back in the spotlight

Posted Fri 9 January 2009 @ 8:33 a.m. by Ernie

The Copyright Amendment Act that parliament passed late last year is back in the news. The Herald has an update today.TUANZ was among several industry and user organisations that united last September to express opposition to the new law. The Act as it stands exposes end users, including large TUANZ member companies and organisations, to having their Web access arbitrarily cut off on the basis of an accusation that a staff member or any one of their users is illicitly accessing copyright...

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Toll roads - Transport Agency does well but tweaks needed

Posted Tue 6 January 2009 @ 11:45 a.m. by Ernie

Today's Herald takes the NZ Transport Agency gently to task for forgetting to have a "https" security encryption tag before the Web address on its new toll payments site. The site is in place for Auckland's Northern Gateway toll road, due to open in a few weeks.The NZTA has responded well in promising to rectify it quickly.I have a personal interest. I live down the road and will use the magnificent new motorway now and then. Yet when I logged in a few days ago to set up an account I abandoned...

Categories: Innovation | TUANZ policy | Vendors

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