Telescum

By TOM PULLAR-STRECKER - The Dominion Post | Monday, 19 March 2007

Overburned Telecom executives appeared to concede the company might be better off splitting up completely and selling off its network infrastructure.

The concession came at the end of a gruelling four-hour presentation in Sydney in which chief finanical offer Marko Bogoievski repeatedly warned analysts and regulators not to underestimate the strain the company was under as it prepared to implement operational separation while juggling competing demands from customers and regulators for new wholesale and retail services.

Full Story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/3998021a28.html

By TOM PULLAR-STRECKER - The Dominion Post | Monday, 19 March 2007

Telecom says the number of people waiting to be connected to its broadband network because all the ports in their local exchange or roadside cabinet are full has fallen in recent months, with 711 customers now in the queue.

It concedes there is a small possibility of customers ending up in broadband limbo if they were connected to a cabinet or exchange that was full, and tried to switch provider.#paraSpokeswoman Sarah Berry says the average length of time people have been on the waiting list for broadband is two or three months.

5:00AM Monday March 19, 2007

New Zealand needs to move faster to improve broadband services, Communications Minister David Cunliffe said yesterday after releasing a report that again highlights the country's poor international ranking.

The Ministry of Economic Development report comparing New Zealand's telecommunications performance with other OECD countries uses figures from the organisation that show uptake of broadband in June last year was an unchanged 22nd place out of 30 countries.

"While New Zealand's performance - especially with broadband internet uptake - has improved in absolute terms, we are in a competitive international race and our relative performance has not improved," Cunliffe said.

Full Story:

By TIM HUNTER - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 18 March 2007

Telecom could be worth more as two separate listed companies, say analysts, and its board should actively consider a structural split.

The advice is contained in a report from Citigroup released last week, just ahead of a Telecom briefing on Wednesday that appeared to embrace some of its ideas.

The financial insititution said the crucial factor was what price the government set for competitors to access Telecom's copper network under local loop unbundling (LLU).

Full Story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/3997106a13.html

Mar 19, 2007

A report by the Ministry of Economic Development is critical of the state of telecommunications in New Zealand, in particular the prices paid by private consumers and buinesses, and the lack of high-end broadband services.

The report finds that New Zealand has good broadband access availability, but that uptake of broadband as of June 2006 was an unchanged 22nd place out of the 30 OECD member countries.

The quality of high-end multiplay broadband, used for e.g. real time video, and advanced broadband business services cannot be compared because they are not available in NZ.

Full Story: http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/1027447

4:12PM Wednesday March 14, 2007

The market is underestimating the cost and complexity of regulatory changes being forced on Telecom, group chief financial officer Marko Bogoievski says.

The Government passed a law in December forcing Telecom to split into three operational units -- wholesale, retail and network.

It has also forced Telecom to open up its local residential networks to competitors -- known as local loop unbundling.

Full Story:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=137&objectid=10428788

The council plans an ambitious broadband network stretching to the outskirts of the city by 2012

By Stephen Bell Wellington | Thursday, 15 March, 2007

Wellington City councillors have unanimously agreed to adopt a broadband vision document presented to the council’s strategy and policy committee last week.

Now, the detailed negotiations and planning involved in realising the “vision” will begin. The council plans an ambitious broadband network stretching to the outskirts of the city by 2012, and seeks industry partners to help it realise this vision of a connected city..

See Full Story:
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/925D4423A82710B3CC2572990010865...

Haha, this should be a laugh. British company Epitiro is to test NZ's internet. Apparently they have challenged NZ internet companies to it, don't know why (oh, because they apparently charge the providers to do it). They should just come and do it before Telecom can speed it up for them.

They are apparently due here in July. This goes to show that NZ really is the laughing stock of the OECD when it comes to internet services.

The part I like the best is:
"Vodafone said it had been talking to the company this week. Telecom would not comment."

I'm sure you've seen the new ad from Telecom where there is the lady who's son is in New York and they hook that little videophone up to him so they can talk on TV. And she's crying and everything?

Can they actually do that with todays clogged network? I thought it would have been too slow.

Especially if they still have a low QoS (Quality of Service) on voice (and possibly video) data so that other traffic on the network gets better performance. Even if the QoS has been changed (I should research that) then how can it get through with the contention ratio being so high making everyone slow?

As you probably noticed, this server is a slow piece of... well you get the point. The reason being we had this server free, so we never really wanted to complain about it. But the guy who hooked us up has quit his job in California so this server is no longer maintained.

But fear not, for we are in the process of getting an account over at http://www.dreamhost.com which is cheap and with insane plans. It is also supposed to be really fast.

Anyway, thought I'd let you know because it's really getting on my nerves so I bet its getting on yours.