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Still Ripped Off

Entry 580, on 2007-07-30 at 21:33:06 (Rating 3, Computers)

As I have mentioned in several blog entries in the past, I am a very Internet-centric person. So its very frustrating having such terrible Internet service here in New Zealand. I blame the government when they sold our telecommunications infrastructure to private overseas ownership. Ever since we have had to put up with poor quality, over-priced services from New Zealand's biggest company, Telecom.

Even since I have moved to a new service provider things aren't much better. The new provider (Orcon) is much better value than the old one I used (Xtra) but they are still limited by the hopeless backbone provided by the evil monopoly Telecom. OK, the government is going to allow other companies access to the local phone wiring but I'm still waiting for that to actually happen.

The other problem is related to our isolated position in the South Pacific ocean. Speeds to America and Europe are fairly bad but new international cables should improve that. The fact that the slow part of the link is often inside New Zealand shows how bad the situation really is.

A recent survey on this revealed a huge level of unhappiness with Internet services here and practically every comment on the comments page hosted by the Herald newspaper was very critical of Telecom. So it looks like another disaster of the free market reforms of the 1980s, along with Air New Zealand, the electricity system, etc. What was the point, except to make rich foreign investors even richer. Do they care about he quality of service here? Of course not.

Comment 1 (743) by OJB on 2007-08-02 at 20:07:55:

In a podcast I heard today some people reported about progress in broadband in other parts of the world. The key element seemed to be that relying on business doesn't work. Where real progress is being made there is a strong push from communities, and local and national governments. This is happening in some parts of the US and in Canada. In other parts of the US, where they rely on laissez-faire economics, standards are slipping like they are here in New Zealand.

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