Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, June 20th, 2011 - 17 comments
The autocratic National government is changing the Kiwishare obligation of Telecom without consultation or notice. They say obligations will be the same, but they will no longer be legal restrictions, but changeable company “deeds”.
Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, June 17th, 2011 - 27 comments
Out of the blue, National has decided to scrap the Telecom ‘Kiwishare’. This is the provision that ensures all Kiwis have free local calling and that Telecom can’t be majority owned by a foreign company. National has refused to supply any justification for opening Telecom to foreign control.
Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, May 24th, 2011 - 7 comments
Steven Joyce has been forced into a embarrassing back-down on giving a regulatory holiday to companies who won contracts for the Government’s Ultra Fast Broadband plan. But MrSmith wonders if leaving it up to Commerce Commission is going to be any better given its poor record under National.
Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, April 12th, 2011 - 16 comments
One of the Nats’ few constructive policies at the last election was Steven Joyce’s ultra-fast broadband project. The Nats promised $1.5 Billion investment to deliver UFB to 75% of New Zealand homes within 10 years. Almost 3 years in, their proposals have just been met with almost universal rejection from industry and consumer groups.
Written By: - Date published: 4:29 pm, December 26th, 2010 - 19 comments
Chinese manufacturing and state support is transforming the cost structure of solar technology. This in turn is helping to put in power support for the emerging use of wireless technologies in the developing world. This helps to ensure that less dirty carbon emitting technologies are not used in the developing world.It is hard to see a downside to this state initiative because it makes solar tech cheaper and more available earlier rather than later.
Written By: - Date published: 7:08 pm, November 1st, 2010 - 8 comments
Are Joyce’s plans for a regulatory holiday on the proposed ultra-fast fibre broadband network a violation of international legal commitments? InternetNZ says yes. Joyce says no. Labour’s Clare Curren accuses the Nats of “disregard for NZ law, legal trade obligations and public scrutiny”.
Written By: - Date published: 4:58 pm, October 16th, 2010 - 11 comments
An article in The Economist looks at the failing basis of polling techniques in the USA. It isn’t that much different to the circumstances here.
“The proportion of those called who end up taking part in a survey has fallen steadily, from 35% or so in the 1990s to 15% or less now, according to Mr Keeter. Reaching young people is especially difficult. Only old ladies answer the phone…”
Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, May 18th, 2010 - 10 comments
Apparently, President Obama has delivered a speech ‘ranting’ against technology. The opinion in The Economist is worth a read just for the joy of reading the hilarity between the lines. ‘WITH iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations—none of which I know how to work—information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather …
Written By: - Date published: 12:34 pm, April 16th, 2010 - 33 comments
Last year, Telecom screws over its engineers. Decides to make them dependent contractors. EPMU wins real jobs for most of them. Better contract conditions for others. But a sh*tload of experienced engineers say screw Telecom and leave the industry. Then the faults start. XT becomes a laughingstock. Customers leave in droves. Next, profit warning.
Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, February 26th, 2010 - 41 comments
The heart of the telecom XT network?
Seriously though, when the 111 call system fails, lives are at risk…
Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, February 24th, 2010 - 60 comments
This man is Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom. He has overseen the largest corporate disaster in recent New Zealand history. The Nats are planning to give him over $6,600 a week in tax cuts. Apparently this screw up on a $7 million salary is the kind of guy New Zealand needs.
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, February 1st, 2010 - 57 comments
Last week thousands of Telecom XT network customers were without service, some for three days. This comes just weeks after a similar outage last December. It makes a mockery of Telecom’s claim of “five nines” (99.999% reliability). A recent post at by Peter Griffin at Sciblogs (a site for NZ science bloggers) tears Telecom a …
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 pm, December 26th, 2009 - 4 comments
One of the nice things that has shown up over the last few years is the slow rise of Internet videophone technology. I’ve been using Skype for years for various purposes, largely for doing conferences with remote programmers when playing with ideas during projects. But you know a technology is making headway when you see …
Written By: - Date published: 5:43 am, September 11th, 2009 - 11 comments
Today, 200 Telecom engineers in Auckland and Northland will be fired. Not because there’s no work for them but because Telecom and it’s $7 million CEO want to cut ‘labour costs’ – that’s workers’ incomes, families’ livelihoods to you and me. Here’s how Telecom’s scam goes. Currently, the engineers are employees of Telecom contractors Transfield …
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 1st, 2009 - 68 comments
There’s nothing like a Tory Government in power and a monopolistic corporate flexing its muscle to remind you that capitalism is all about serving the bosses and screwing the workers. This Telecom dispute. The engineers are being made redundant from their current roles already in batches. On October 1, all the jobs will be gone …
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, August 25th, 2009 - 17 comments
For what seems like the fiftieth time, we’re being told to expect an announcement from Steven Joyce on the shape of the Government’s ultra-fast broadband investment programme. It’s been nine months now and he hasn’t managed to produce anything solid, let alone get the legislative process underway. Before the election, we were told that $1.5 …
Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, August 20th, 2009 - 37 comments
You’ve heard about the Telecom dispute. But while a lot of the focus has been on what it means for the lines engineers involved, an equally important issue is what it means for the future of our country’s infrastructure. Because basically, this whole dispute is a sympton of Telecom’s attempts to increase its profits at …
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, April 28th, 2009 - 6 comments
Inspired by a forwarded e-mail about Obama’s speech to the NAS with this line in it Imagine Key committing to invest 3% of GDP in R&D Obama 27th April 2009 at the National Academy of Science I am here today to set this goal: we will devote more than three percent of our GDP to …
Written By: - Date published: 3:47 pm, September 2nd, 2008 - 34 comments
John Drinnan in the NZ Herald: “One of the biggest challengers in the telecommunications business, TelstraClear, has attacked National Party plans for a fibre-optic network, saying the party should be focused on business. “The telco says the main result of faster broadband links to the home may be more downloads of pornography and movies rather …
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