Sponsor's Message

Let's see now whether this government will call in the "good behaviour bond" mentioned in this NZ Herald story published back in June.

I recall also that back in May, Communications Minister Paul Swain was widely quoted as saying that "Telecom now is on notice, we expect greater roll out and competition in broadband services over the next few months".

Well Mr Swain, I would say there's no doubt that Telecom have backtracked on their original UBS proposal and are actually working to stifle real competition in the broadband market. You've talked the talk, now it's time to walk the walk.

Enough is enough -- Telecom are giving the finger to the government, the Commerce Commission, competing ISPs and every Kiwi that wants an affordable competitive DSL-based broadband service.

If the government doesn't act very promptly and firmly to back up its promises then I think we really ought to start looking in a few cabinet members' closets for a stack of Telecom shares.

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Some of Telecom's strategy to avoid competition despite the introduction of a UBS service is very simple and remarkably blatant.

Take the churn fee for example...

Right now there are a lot of people signing up for broadband and chances are, the only broadband they can get is one of the JetSurf plans.

The cheapest JetSurf option is (of course) with Telecom's Xtra -- so long as you use Telecom for your toll calling (which most people do).

Now Telecom knows that the longer they can keep the UBS service in limbo, the more people will sign up to Xtra's JetSurf and, once they've signed, the churn fee will make them far less attractive to other ISPs who will (eventually) offer their own plans based around UBS.

The churn fee therefore is blatantly anticompetitive and should not be allowed at all.

Telecom justifies the churn fee by saying that its presence will encourage other ISPs to chase *new* customers rather than simply poach ones from other providers. Well excuse me but I though that the whole idea of competition was to provide choice for *everyone*.

It would appear that the only people who can't see the forest for the trees in respect to Telecom's blatant anti-competitive actions and attitudes in respect to DSL competition are the government and its ministers.

That they're doing nothing to stop it (and thereby passively endorsing this monopolistic behaviour) mean they're either stupid, negligent or engaging in some form of self-interest.

What ever the reason -- it's time that *we* held this government to account.

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