Separation Day is Here!
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Posted Mon 31 March 2008 @ 3:45 a.m. by Ernie Newman
It's Separation Day!
Minister Cunliffe has called a media conference for 9.15 this morning. No prizes for guessing what that's about.
This is a watershed day for telecommunications users, for Telecom's wholesale and access network customers, for Telecom itself, and of course for the new ANS unit Chorus.
Many customers are already reaping the benefits. As Peter Griffin notes in his Herald blog, there are substantial cost savings from switching to Naked DSL with an alternative service provider.
I can verify that. Ar home I am an early adopter of the NDSL service offered by WorldxChange. I can't say the transition was absolutely straightforward - there were issues with provisioning the DSL line, number porting and setup. If I hadn't had a bit of technical knowledge I might have given up. But the people at WorldxChange were easily accessible on the help desk and I know Telecom Wholesale did their bit competently in the background. So I got there.
I've found the service quality almost indistinguishable from the PSTN service. More to the point, the cost saving is much greater than I anticipated - mostly coming from WxC offering services free that Telecom made a surcharge for, and absence of any "favourite place" surcharge for calls between the Hibiscus Coast and Auckland.
Precise price comparisons are always hard because of differing plans and bill formats. But I reckon my monthly bill has about halved. Part of this may be because I was paying for several Telecom services that I didn't need and wasn't really using - reminder calls, wiring maintenance etc. Some other services for which I paid a supplement to Telecom are free from WorldxChange. But whichever way you look at it, the saving is well worth any inconvenience of switching.
Not everyone is going to switch, and neither should they. Telecom is going to remain a huge part of the New Zealand telecommunications landscape for the foreseeable future. Hopefully now that the huge task of restructuring the business for Separation is behind them they can focus on the market, their investment plans, and getting things right for providing New Zealand with the 21st century services we need.
For many people in the industry and in the government agencies that support it, Separation Day is an enormous milestone and the culmination of a vast amount of personal effort. TUANZ thanks you and wishes you well. At last we have a set of policies, and an industry structure, that is competition-friendly and appropriate for 21st century needs. Lets make it work for New Zealand.
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* For the record, WorldxChange gave me a modem free of charge to trial their new service which I have kept, but I am paying the advertised public rates for my Naked DSL service ongoing.
Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | ISPs | Regulatory | TUANZ policy