Telescum

Here's a good idea... A public network that is built and owned by the, say, council/public, and then the telecomms companies provide services through it. Kind of like a "local" local loop. Except it is unbundled and the companies can put their own equipment in. That way, the network could be neutral (up to where the ISP comes into it anyway) and "customers can be sure that any traffic-management mechanisms are necessary and not added to improve profitability".

Either a wired or wireless network however I am sure wireless would be a hell of a lot easier, especially with UWB (ultra-wide-band) around the corner.

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/netw/103F6763DAA49A28CC257283008364B...

The power outage at Orcon looks to have made some customers a little wary of hosting their services there. Their internet wasn't affected so they shouldn't lose any customers there.

Surely they'll only let this slip up in redundancy happen once.

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/25933855C5CE4778CC2572910078041...

Now this is not a bad idea, despite how it sounds.

Basically Telecom want to take the old equipment from the cities that is superceeded by the ADSL2 equipment and put it out in the rural areas. Not a bad idea I thought as they aren't exactly the best for supporting rural towns and areas.

Plus its recycling electronical equipment which is good for the evironment. The WEEE would be proud.

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/297C09906F3B346ACC25728B0005D0B...

Now this is pretty crap. Turns out that Teleom have been constraining all traffic of users on the Go Large plan instead of just P2P software. I wonder if they included voice data (VoIP - free calls) in there?

However they are giving $8.5m back to its customers who were at a loss because of this which is pretty good I guess. But not good for the dork who added all traffic to the low QoS list ;-)

I wonder if it wasn't the contention ratio as I suspected but this that has been causing an immense slowdown of broadband? Or is it an excuse, they are telling us that it was the traffic restrictions set in place because they don't want to admit they have a horrible contention ratio?

This article is kind of like a debriefing to Theresa Gettung's resignation. It very colourfully describes the extend of her damage to the Telecomms industry here in NZ and how Telecom managed to dodge regulation twice before being "nabbed".

• "Under Gattung’s regime, Telecom succesfully stymied competition locally, leaving it the strongest player in the market by far."
• "[Douglas Webb] reverse[d] his position on unbundling Telecom’s local loop, despite it being best practice in all OECD countries."
• "[Telecom] ...staved off regulation with an offer of crippled wholesale DSL with margins so low it bled ISPs dry."

Seems everyone is trying to get as many customers as they can before Telecom changes to come in line with the new regulations. iHug put out those super cheap flat rate (flat rate!!!) phone line plans before christmas and now Orcon has announced it has bought a new IP switch (for $2m no less!) which means it has now "become a full telco and carrier.". They plan to sell IPTV, telephone, broadband and video services for $50-$60 a month!

Theresa Gattung has resigned from Telecom. Well not yet, she ends on June 30. But in the article she says "the telco sector has 'a great outlook' and 'it has been a privilege to work in a company that is at the heart of such exciting change.'"...

Yeah it has a great outlook now that you [Telecom] have got a kick up the backside from the government. Such exciting change? You call dropping share prices exciting change?

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/E1B217459631BBC8CC2572750073487...

Parody on the "Keep in Touch" ads. Claims Telecom has to fly family members to NZ because the internet is too slow for video conferencing etc, and the phone charges are too high.

Clip about the SMS hacking on Telecom networks

Amusing how they showed a Vodafone phone there.