TelsrtraClear needs to listen
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Posted Thu 30 July 2009 @ 8:11 a.m. by Ernie Newman
Is TelstraClear's media stance being driven by an out-of-date script sourced from its parent company?
Once again its out there huffing and puffing - staring down the government's plans to co-invest $1.5 billion for fibre to the premises. Look at this piece in today's DomPost.
I'm not knocking the planned upgrade of the Wellington cable network - it will be a good benefit to those customers within Wellington and Christchurch who have access to, and choose to use the service. Although in the context of a capital-intensive industry like telecommunications, $10 million is not a particularly large investment.
But what frustrates me is that once again, here's TelstraClear knocking the government's investment plan. Its the continuation of a pattern. Today we get:
- "The government does not now need to roll out fibre to Wellington and Christchurch" (Yeah right, tell that to the good citizens of those cities.)
- The government's fibre plan described as "yet to be confirmed". (Don’t these guys read the papers? I find it hard to think of any government initiative that has been reaffirmed so strongly, unequivocally, and often. Its alive and well, whether TelstraClear likes it or not.)
- "We strongly don't believe taxpayers and ratepayers money should be used to compete against us in areas where we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars"(If the services that result meet the aspirations of the government and community then of course they won't overbuild - TelstraClear's challenge is to listen to what the community is saying and work with the government, not against it.)
And as Steven Joyce correctly says in response, 100Mbps may not be fast enough for some users such as schools - even now.
TelstraClear's statement is the latest of a number of utterances striking out at the government's broadband investment plans. Their confrontational stance is not just against the government, but against their own customers who have expressed their support for a government investment in fibre, over and over, through ballot boxes and opinion polls.
In many respects their position mirrors that of their parent company in Australia over the past few years. But TelstraClear should reflect on two things.
First, Telstra's position led to disaster - their Chief Executive and his team sent back to the USA with their reputations tarnished (see The Australian"), and a new CEO brought in to repair relationships with the government, working with it rather than against.
Second, in Australia Telstra may be a dominant incumbent with real muscle, but TelstraClear is a struggling number three. There's a bit of a "mouse that roared" feeling about their putting the government on notice. An entirely different , updated script is needed for the New Zealand environment in 2009.
Paul Budde says in the article that cable networks are a "dead end technology." Allan Freeth responds "We don't buy into much of Paul's stuff."
Maybe he should listen more.
Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | ISPs | TUANZ policy