I don't think Telecom want to restrict net access; they just want their ISP, Xtra, to become the dominant ISP, and the easiest way of acheiving that is to force all the other ISPs out of the market via net taxes and predatory pricing. (If you read this you'll see that Telecom's ISP, Xtra, is exempt from the charges).
To say they are 'exempt' is mis-leading. They use another special number (0873) which is 'IPNet' a service that allows ISPs to make use of 'communial' modem pools the traffic is then routed through that ISP's network.
The thing is however that there is no effective way for ISPs to control access to these lines (kicks are near impossible) -Meaning that people can multi-login with one login and password on a flat-rate account. making them ineffective for providing nationwide access.
However it is understood that Telecom allows their ISP Xtra to have calls to that IPNet number to be routed to local modem pools. This is not a service that is available to other ISPs - If they wanted to play on the same field as Xtra they would have to base themselves entirely on IPNet, then they are at Telecom's mercy when it comes to expansion of service. Some ISPs make extensive use of this in areas they can't offer a local numbers, but it has a reputation of being hard to connect to.
It's basically _way_ unfair competition... there are a number of issues like this in the NZ telecommunications industry at the moment, and a major problem is that the Minister of Communications and the Commerce Commission are completely ball-less and won't doing anything to keep Telecom in check.
When a company (in New Zealand) is paying in excess of NZ$400 million a year in taxes you can understand the government's reluctance to get nasty.
The (in my opinion) biggest motivating factor in this move is to avoid interconnection fees. Currently Telecom is paying other local carriers a per minute fee for calls that originate on Telecom's network (about 99% of residental lines) and terminate on other carriers network. However for other carriers to offer the 'Internet Numbers' to their ISP customers they will likely not be able to charge those interconnect fees. That is a loss to those carriers of millions of dollars a month, however if they don't accept it then anyone calling ISPs on their network will be subject to the 'Telecom Net Tax'.
The ironic part is the fact that Telecom's ISP, Xtra recently moved (as in 2 weeks ago) from a time-based charging system to flat-rate, so "New Zealanders could spend more time online," only to turn around a week and a half later and blame Net usage on the problems with it's network.
This is a message I posted at Segfault in response to the whingers... ----
Christ, get a grip... The people who are getting do uptight about this really ammuse me... As April 1st drew close I was excepting that I would have my chain yanked by at least on of the sites I visit often, and at work - But I never expected this. It was brilliant...
But people have such trouble stepping over the ego to admit they were sucked in that they get all nasty about the whole thing... It reminds me alot of a 'Mockumentry' that was screened on New Zealand TV a couple of years back, made by Peter Jackson (Director of The Frightners and the upcoming Hobbit movies), about a New Zealand who developed a cine camera earlier than alot of other people and among other things caught Richard Pierce flying before the Wright brothers (A New Zealander, Richard Pierce was attempting to fly about the same time the Wright brothers were, and there are reports that he was infact first by a matter of days, however they are hard to prove), this had so many people sucked in that when it came out a few days later that it was a fake there were so many 'letters to the editor' about it and so on that it received huge (even some international) media attention.. He, I believe even got death threats...
The point was that people felt betrayed on issues they cared strongly about... If it had just been a thing about a crafty Kiwi that made moving pictures before on his on, then people would have felt ripped off, but still seen the humor, but the fact that it seemed to prove that Richard Pierce *was* the first to fly angered many, who obviously would have liked alot to have history re-written to accomidate a New Zealander in a role so pivotal...
Step back, review the whole thing, forget that you were ready to march in the streets, and admire Scott, Illiad, et al. for their staging of this trick...
It is funny... You can't always take yourself so seriously.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think Telecom want to restrict net access; they just want their ISP, Xtra, to become the dominant ISP, and the easiest way of acheiving that is to force all the other ISPs out of the market via net taxes and predatory pricing. (If you read this you'll see that Telecom's ISP, Xtra, is exempt from the charges).
To say they are 'exempt' is mis-leading. They use another special number (0873) which is 'IPNet' a service that allows ISPs to make use of 'communial' modem pools the traffic is then routed through that ISP's network.
The thing is however that there is no effective way for ISPs to control access to these lines (kicks are near impossible) -Meaning that people can multi-login with one login and password on a flat-rate account. making them ineffective for providing nationwide access.
However it is understood that Telecom allows their ISP Xtra to have calls to that IPNet number to be routed to local modem pools. This is not a service that is available to other ISPs - If they wanted to play on the same field as Xtra they would have to base themselves entirely on IPNet, then they are at Telecom's mercy when it comes to expansion of service. Some ISPs make extensive use of this in areas they can't offer a local numbers, but it has a reputation of being hard to connect to.
It's basically _way_ unfair competition... there are a number of issues like this in the NZ telecommunications industry at the moment, and a major problem is that the Minister of Communications and the Commerce Commission are completely ball-less and won't doing anything to keep Telecom in check.
When a company (in New Zealand) is paying in excess of NZ$400 million a year in taxes you can understand the government's reluctance to get nasty.
The (in my opinion) biggest motivating factor in this move is to avoid interconnection fees. Currently Telecom is paying other local carriers a per minute fee for calls that originate on Telecom's network (about 99% of residental lines) and terminate on other carriers network. However for other carriers to offer the 'Internet Numbers' to their ISP customers they will likely not be able to charge those interconnect fees. That is a loss to those carriers of millions of dollars a month, however if they don't accept it then anyone calling ISPs on their network will be subject to the 'Telecom Net Tax'.
The ironic part is the fact that Telecom's ISP, Xtra recently moved (as in 2 weeks ago) from a time-based charging system to flat-rate, so "New Zealanders could spend more time online," only to turn around a week and a half later and blame Net usage on the problems with it's network.
That's all.
This is a message I posted at Segfault in response to the whingers...
----
Christ, get a grip... The people who are getting do uptight about this really ammuse me... As April 1st drew close I was excepting that I would have my chain yanked by at least on of the sites I visit often, and at work - But I never expected this. It was brilliant...
But people have such trouble stepping over the ego to admit they were sucked in that they get all nasty about the whole thing... It reminds me alot of a 'Mockumentry' that was screened on New Zealand TV a couple of years back, made by Peter Jackson (Director of The Frightners and the upcoming Hobbit movies), about a New Zealand who developed a cine camera earlier than alot of other people and among other things caught Richard Pierce flying before the Wright brothers (A New Zealander, Richard Pierce was attempting to fly about the same time the Wright brothers were, and there are reports that he was infact first by a matter of days, however they are hard to prove), this had so many people sucked in that when it came out a few days later that it was a fake there were so many 'letters to the editor' about it and so on that it received huge (even some international) media attention.. He, I believe even got death threats...
The point was that people felt betrayed on issues they cared strongly about... If it had just been a thing about a crafty Kiwi that made moving pictures before on his on, then people would have felt ripped off, but still seen the humor, but the fact that it seemed to prove that Richard Pierce *was* the first to fly angered many, who obviously would have liked alot to have history re-written to accomidate a New Zealander in a role so pivotal...
Step back, review the whole thing, forget that you were ready to march in the streets, and admire Scott, Illiad, et al. for their staging of this trick...
It is funny... You can't always take yourself so seriously.