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CC states the bleeding obvious

One of the final headlines to appear on last week's tech news wires was the revelation that Telecom's charges "are higher than other countries", according to the Commerce Commission.

That's news?

Did someone out there not know this already?

But,for the benefit of anyone who's been living in a cave for the last couple of decades, here's the skinny...

It appears that just about every mobile phone calling option offered by Telecom is either at or near the bottom of the affordability list the Commission has compiled.

Whether you're on a monthly plan with contract term, or just going the PrePay way, Telecom's prices are just uncompetitive with those of the equivalent mobile carrier in almost any other nation.

Why is this?

Well it's all down to a lack of competition. Again, there's no news in that revelation.

NZ is one of only a tiny handful (maybe only two) countries where there are less than three mobile phone networks installed. No surprise therefore that, thanks to the cosy arrangement between Telecom and Vodafone, we're left to pay the highest prices in the world.

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The two companies have carefully divided the market up in such a fashion that they offer different benefits to the same markets.

If you want cheap txting then Telecom's PrePay option with 500 SMS messages for $10 a month is attractive -- but if you also want cheap voice calling on PrePay then Vodafone's offering starts to look better.

There are plenty more examples where Vodafone wins in one area while Telecom wins in another.

The effect of this careful market dissection is that a huge number of Kiwi mobile users are effectively forced to subscribe to both networks and carry two phones, if they really want to keep their costs to a minimum.

With such an arrangement, both companies end up earning more than they would if they set out to really become the dominant player.

What a cosy duopoly that is!

I'm also left scratching my head as to exactly why the Commerce Commission has even bothered making an announcement that represents "the bleeding obvious" when they refuse to do anything to address the situation.

Oh, that's right -- we've been promised that the mobile call termination fee will drop by a few small cents over the next five years or so. Big deal!

What is a few cents when we're looking at such a massive disparity with the rest of the world (developed or otherwise)?

And what a bunch of suckers we've turned out to be as consumers.

Not only do we just pay whatever the mobile companies choose to charge us, a huge number of us actually pay *both* companies!

When is some bright enterprising Kiwi company going to come up with a mesh-based mobile network that can effectively operate with very few towers (particularly in urban environments) and provide a vastly more cost-effective service with some really impressive features?

But maybe Peter Griffin has the right idea.

Perhaps it's time to take his lead and throw your Telecom mobile out the window.

Just as a matter of interest... if a 3rd party appeared with their own handsets that used a totally different standard but offered a much lower price, would you take a punt? Would you pay $150 for a handset and (say) $0.20/min for voice and $0.01 per SMS and small emails?

Have your say on this...

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