Telecom NZ admit breaching Fair Trading Act
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telecom New Zealand has admitted that it breached the Fair Trading Act as it mislead more than 130,000 broadband customers. The admission was made in a settlement with the Commerce Commission.
A broadband internet service was launched by Telecom NZ in 1999, offering its existing dial-up customers the opportunity to migrate to broadband, although these customers would continue to have a dial-up connection, but would not be charged. But customers who took up the offer between 1999 and 2006 continued to be billed monthly account charges for dial-up due to some administrative errors.
After admitting the breach of Fair Trading Act, from March 2007 Telecom began refunding the affected customers and writing to all those customers to advise them of the error. The company extended full co-operation in the investigation carried out by Commission. It also undertook a costly internal exercise to refund all affected customers.
It is not for the first time that the company has been acted in breach of the Fair Trading Act. Since 2003 Telecom has been the subject of Fair Trading Act convictions, settlements or warnings on at least eight occasions. The Commission encouraged Telecom to make compliance with the Act a top priority.
Lower mobile termination rates proposed by Vodafone & Telecom NZ
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Commerce Commission received proposals from Vodafone New Zealand and Telecom NZ on lower mobile termination rates. Since late 2008, the commission has been looking at whether to regulate the tariffs and the entry of a third operator on the market, 2degrees.
Telecom’s proposal will experience a drop of 12 cents of minutes in rate until the end of 2010 and the per-second billing introduced form 1 April 2010. By 2012, the rate will come down to 10 cents in 2011, 9 cents in 2010, 8 cents in 2013 and 6 cents in 2014.
Vodafone will try the same price cuts but from October 2010 as under the current proposal, Vodafone risks of losing around NZD 50 million in revenues. The Commerce Commission will make the recommendations to the ICT ministry in February.
Telecom goes Yahoo!
Telecom New Zealand has created a joint venture with internet search firm Yahoo! and Australian broadcasting network Seven to produce new content for Telecom’s high speed internet portal Xtra. Telecom is taking a 49% stake in the new firm, which has been christened Yahoo! Xtra. The venture, which is due to be launched next March, will offer an enhanced range of news, entertainment and messaging services to broadband internet users. Telecom NZ CEO Theresa Gattung commented: ‘”The Yahoo! Xtra joint venture will provide New Zealanders with access to the world’s best online services in a localised way.’ Yahoo! has already formed similar ventures with the likes of BT in the UK, Verizon Communications in the US and Rogers in Canada.
