They abused the Kiwi Share. Despite what their "advice" says I
think anyone with half a brain can see that nowhere in the Kiwi Share
document does it mention any exemption for any specific category of call.
It has been suggested that the Ministry Of Commerce has tentatively approved
the $0.02/min charge -- a further indicator (if true) that something really
needs to be done about Telecom's seemingly incestuous relationship with this
government. I've heard no comment from our Minister of Communications over
this matter -- it will be interesting to see if he's prepared to spit on the
Kiwi Share document to support Telecom.
PSTN Overload -- the solution?
Now nobody can deny that the integrity of the PSTN has to be protected from
attack by long-duration Internet calls -- but has Telecom overlooked the
obvious?
Perhaps they should be spending more of that hundreds of millions of dollars
of annual profit on simply upgrading their network and switches!
The fact that the network isn't up to the task isn't the fault or the responsibility
of ISPs and Internet users -- it's simply that Telecom are not spending enough
on maintaining and expanding their infrastructure. Yes, Mr Sowry will wax on
about how Telecom *is* spending hundreds of millions of dollars on adding new
capacity, installing and upgrading switches, etc, etc -- but regardless of how
much they *are* spending -- clearly it is not enough!
If Telecom is going to come whinging to the Net industry and community about
how their telephone use is threatening the stability of the 111 service then
they're just being bloody stupid and very greedy. Telecom NZ has a responsibility
to provide reasonable levels of service to *all* its users and to accept this
latest dictate would be opening the door to a real pandora's box.
What next -- two tiers of service for residential users? Those who don't want
to pay x cents per minute will only be able to get dialtone between 6:00pm and
8:00am so as to avoid overloading the 111 network?
Of course the "ultimate solution" to the problem of mixing voice and data calls
on the same network is for Telecom to roll out their ADSL service as quickly as
possible -- thus effectively bypassing much of the PSTN anyway. This would seem
to be the "carrot" approach that most Net users would favor.
Data Or Voice -- How Do They Know?
There's also the issue of how Telecom know when a call is a data call and when
it's a voice call. Sure, there's technology to determine that -- but if they're
going to all the effort of installing such systems - why not just spend the
money on building and maintaining adequate capacity within their network?
Data Now -- Fax Next?
Thanks at least in part due to a concerted marketing push by Telecom, many
homes now have a fax machine. If they are granted an
exemption from the provisions of the Kiwi Share for non-voice calls -- how
long before we see a per-minute charge introduced for residential faxing?
Big Brother?
In order to detect when a residential subscriber has hit the 10 hour per month
mark for modem use they are clearly going to be logging all modem activity.
Just think about this -- Telecom will know exactly which households are
heavy Net users (or which are Net connected) and which aren't.
Of course if you're dialing the 0867 prefix it's even easier to log which
households are "online" and for how long.
How long before
this information finds its way to the XTRA marketing department
for the purposes of soliciting new business?
Perhaps your next phone bill will contain a little note that reads:
"Dear phone user, we note that you presently use the Internet xx hours
per month but aren't an XTRA customer. We invite you to subscribe to the
XTRA xxx plan and enjoy our low-cost, high performance Internet service..."
Is this unfair abuse of a monopoly? I'm taking bets now!
Penalising The Competition
By its own admission, this change won't affect Telecom's own ISP service XTRA
since it already uses IPNet for local calls. This means that Telecom is imposing
a very significant financial penalty on most of its competitors -- by way of
the need to re-press thousands of "start-up" disks and cope with what is likely
to be a massive help-desk burden. While they appear happy to pay lipservice
and offer "what ever assistance is required" to help ISPs and Net users through
the transition period -- they appear to have stopped well short of offering
any kind of financial compensation or assistance.
Name one other business that could force its competitors to take a financial
hit like this! Hardly a level playingfield is it?
Only A Monopoly
Let's face it -- if Telecom had any real competition in the local-loop marketplace
they would not be using threats to get people to switch to this new system.
Once again we see the disastrous effects that a defacto monopoly has on
the way a company treats its customers -- unfortunately it's too late to address
this situation -- and let's not even think of what we'd be facing if it weren't for the
provisions of the Kiwi Share. We must demand that the government upholds the
protection built into the Kiwi Share!
Footnote
It seems that whenever Telecom are called to account over their attempts to
squeeze more money out of residential customers they trot out that old
chestnut that "NZ is unusual in that it has no local call charges." Likewise
whenever a comparison is made with the very low telecoms costs found in the
USA they claim US phone users pay "per minute."
Well ... strangely enough, of all the US residents I know (and I know a
few who live all across the country from L.A. to New York) *none* of them
pay a per-minute fee for local calls! It seems that the local-call market
there is so competitive that it's very easy to find a plan that will give
you free calling in your local area. On top of that there are an increasing
number of "all you can eat" flat-rate interstate calling plans on offer which
make Telecom's $3 weekends and evenings offer look like decidedly bad value.
What About Business Users?
This new surcharge only applies to residential users making local calls to
their ISP. Don't Internet users calling from a business line also contribute
to PSTN congestion? Don't those who make a toll-call to their ISP contribute
to the PSTN congestion? Is it okay to contribute to the PSTN congestion so
long as you're willing to pay extra for the privilege?
If this was *really* an attempt to reduce congestion then the surcharge would
surely apply to *any* Net call -- not just those made using an otherwise
*free* call from a residential number. Does this anomaly betray the real
reason for introducing the fee?
The Bottom Line
Telecom's goals are laudable -- their methods stink.
Telecom's attitude of looking to blame and penalise their customers for
its own shortcomings and greed is not only arrogant -- it's a downright abuse of
their monopoly.
Let's hope the government
has the backbone to stand up to them (just this once) and properly enforce
the Kiwi Share!
Unfortunately, since the forums are down anyone wishing to "have their say"
will have to use the
contact form but I will publish a selection of reader
comments over the weekend -- so have your say and keep coming back to see
what others have said. (Note: to further highlight the seriousness of this
issue, today's Aardvark Weekly is ad-free so you can seen that
I'm not just trying to generate more "hits").
