Weak Non-Answers from Industry to Mobile Termination Challenge

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Posted Mon 25 June 2007 @ 10:20 a.m. by Ernie Newman

The lead article in today's Business Herald dealing with the disparity between New Zealand and Australian termination charges is significant mainly for the weakness of the responses of the two mobile operators.

"The 'Industry solution" will result in savings for customers," says Vodafone.

"Rates have been coming down because of better deals and pricing packages and there is no reason to believe they will not continue to do so," says Telecom.

Guys, - what a load of bland, condescending, duopolistic, meaningless claptrap! Is that REALLY the best your PR gurus can come up with?

Your customers, now locked into paying twice the Aussie going rate for termination rates, deserve a better explanation. TUANZ will strongly recommend to our large members with some negotiating power that they seek a special deal during their next contract negotiation. But that doesn't help the struggling kiwi battlers who are price takers.

By the way - should we be surprised that the Minister was unavailable for comment?

Categories: ISPs | Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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  • Jane says:

    Whilst I had a reasonable degree of sympathy with Vodafone when we first raised this in 2003 given they had no means of cross subsidising termination charge with fixed wireline rentals, the environment has changed substantially. The Commissioners 28th Sept 2006 decision to provide Vodafone free local calling as part of their interconnect agreement has levelled the playing field. Sure, we can be concerned that a reduction in mobile termination won't be passed on to the consumer, but both mobile operators can compete for the residential market now. And a five year deal is a ridiculously lengthy timeframe for this industry. And yes, it will be the 85% of New Zealand businesses who don't have the financial clout of the larger companies who will be burdened with this shonky deal.

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