You interview: Dr Paul Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer, Telecom New Zealand

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › You interview: Dr Paul Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer, Telecom New Zealand

freitasm

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#24488 25-Jul-2008 15:24

We here at Geekzone managed to get some time from Dr Paul Reynolds to answer questions you will post in this thread.

These are the rules:

1.Only questions in this thread. Any post that it is not a question will be removed
2.Only valid questions. Any post with questions that are clearly trying to make a point or being a troll will be removed
3.We want your questions but we obviously have a time limit so this thread will be locked Monday 4th August
4.Dr Paul Reynolds wants your questions but he obviously has a time limit too, so we will try to merge some questions and limit to the most interesting ones.

Here is a short bio:

"Dr Paul Reynolds was appointed Chief Executive of the Telecom Group on June 28 2007, effective from 27 September 2007. His previous role is as CEO of BT Wholesale in the United Kingdom.

Paul joined BT in 1983 after completing a doctorate in geology at the University of London. He has had a distinguished career, encompassing senior leadership roles in sales and marketing, strategy, information systems, broadband, and guiding BT's wholesale business through the complex process of operational separation, when Openreach was created.

He served on BT's Board of Directors from 2001. In 2006, the Telecommunications Industry Association of America awarded him its 'Global Icon' award for his leadership and innovation."

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#151325 25-Jul-2008 15:42

Dr Reynolds, both major political parties (Labour and National) have indicated that Fibre to the Home (FTTH) will be a key offering of their election campaign. Does Telecom have any plans for a large-scale FTTN network in the near future, and if so how does this fit in with what the Political Parties are proposing?

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grimwulf

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#151355 25-Jul-2008 16:30

Dr Reynolds - it must be as clear to anyone in the telecommunications industry, as it is to those outside it, that mobile broadband costs are extortionately expensive here in New Zealand. Can you offer any explanations as to why this is? and does Telecom have any plans to provide a globally competetive service (as opposed to simply matching Vodafone blow by blow?).

SubAtomix

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#151372 25-Jul-2008 16:57

How does Telecom feel about VoIP offerings from its competitors in both the retail and in the business sector?
Will Telecom be offering anything like this of its own in the forseeable future?

barnaclebarnes

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#151380 25-Jul-2008 17:34

Dr Reynolds,

One word: Ferrit

With an investment north of $30 million dollars and traffic that is less than a deal-a day site and only slightly more than a shop selling parallel imported sports gear how can Telecom keep supporting Ferrit? With a charging structure that can hardly bring in much cash at current traffic levels and no sign of an forward momentum it doesn't seem to add up.

I would be really interested to know how you think Telecom can make Ferrit profitable in the medium term.

Thanks,

Glen

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#151386 25-Jul-2008 17:49

Is telecom considering at this stage launching UMTS in addition to GSM on the 850mhz band and is there a chance we will see the iPhone 3g in the initial handset lineup when GSM/UMTS comes online in November?

robsonde

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#151387 25-Jul-2008 17:53

Dr Reynolds.

we have been told many time that the cost of data in NZ is high due to the long cable runs under the sea.

what is the logic behind the cost of data to a cellphone?

if I can get data on ADSL at a cost of around $1.5 per GB then why is the same data to a cellphone 100 times more expencive??

in USA some cellphone providers give unlimited data for around $50USD.
why can't we have data costs of $5 per GB to a cellphone?
this price would seem to be giving you (telecom) a profit margin and still giving us (the punters) a good price.

insane

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#151389 25-Jul-2008 18:08

Dr Reynolds,

1. What processes are in place for to allow wholesave providers (ISPs) to be able to provision Broadband services as telecom retail can without having to wait for 'open service orders' to be all colsed off? This restriction on wholesale ISPs sees many businesses choose Telecom Broadband over other good ISPs due to the slight favoritism in provisioning times.

2. Can you please give us hard numbers for the number of faults generated on Telecom/Xtra WBS connections vs wholesale UBS/UBA connections? I'm fairly certain that the L2TP tunnel needed for UBS causes unnessessary PPP disconnections, any comments on this?

3. How is the new peering arrangement actually going to make local backhaul cheaper for ISPs? Why is telecom so set againsnt peering at the APE, WIX when this would clearly benift your end customers be it directly or indirectly through wholeale.

thanks

ykiwi

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#151401 25-Jul-2008 18:38

Dr Reynolds

1: What is your and Telecoms NZ's position in the net neutrality debate?

2: Vint Cerf has praised the UK/NZ wholesale/retail separation models, but other comentators have said that the UK model has resulted in higher costs to the consumer. (via Dave Farber's IP list). How will you work to ensure that prices to the NZ retail and wholesale consumers are low in international terms while providing a fair return to shareholders?

3: We are still largely constrained by broadband bandwidth Caps in NZ, which restricts the business models that our developers and consumers can participate in. What will you do to unleash the full internet and reduce the constraints from bandwidth caps?

4: International mobile data roaming charges are ridiculously high - to the point where using mobile data internatonally is just not viable. What is Telecom NZ doing to encourage all telcos to reduce roaming charges to sensible numbers?

5: Moores law and Metcalfe's law dominate your world. Paint for us your vision of how telecomunicaitons will look in 15 years time. (Is data access ubiquituous? what are the revenue models? How is Telecom NZ adapting to an end game where data access is like electricity?)

many thanks
Lance Wiggs

seamonkey

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#151482 25-Jul-2008 23:37

Hello,

I am currently on Orcon broadband, and for $79.95 a month (tolls discount inclusive) I get full speed download and upload with a 50gig data cap at Adsl2+ speeds (I also have the option of interleaving being turned off on my internet connection). Other isps can offer similar amounts of data, for roughly a similar price.

If you compare these large data cap offerings with the closest plan pricewise ($79.95) that xtra has to offer, you would only be able to use 15gig of data per month (Incidently, my parents would use close to that amount streaming christian TV and radio per month). Or if you were to compare a 50gig Orcon plan with an Xtra 50gig plan, the Xtra plan is $149.95!!! This is nearly double the price, for the same amount of data!

My questions are, will Xtra ever have similar plans to its competitors in the near distant future, and if not how so?

I would love to switch back to Xtra, as they were definitly the most stable isp I have ever been with, but with its current data offerings and price structure, this has become impossible!

Thank you very much for your time!

Regards

Duncan

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#151486 25-Jul-2008 23:46

Dr Reynolds

Having worked around the world in telecomunications, how would you rate New Zealand network now and were it should be?

Andrew

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#151602 26-Jul-2008 15:45

Will any of the adsl2 compatible broadband plans(pro,pro advanced, pro ultra) ever have no excess data charges and instead have the speed lowered to dial up speed once a person reaches their data cap?

Is there ever going to be an unlimited data usage adsl1 broadband plan?

Are the adsl1 broadband plans ever going to have an option to purchase additional gigabyte data blocks once a person reaches their data cap?

MelloClello

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#151684 26-Jul-2008 22:48

As adamj has stated, the government is all for faster internet. Doubtlessly the advent of fiber-to-the-home would be a boon for all business (live High-Def videoconferencing, fast off-site data backup, all kinds of other awesomeness etc), but with your current system of monthly data capping, live streaming of audio/video will remain impossible, as one must constantly worry about inching closer to the cap.

For example, I can’t leave a TV channel's live video feed playing, or run an open WiFi network, as I must keep an eye out for the cap and subsequent excess charges. Do you think we have sufficient international bandwidth to start viewing the internet as an amenity, not a finite resource, and remove the data caps? And if current undersea connections preclude this, what are you doing about it/when do you expect this to become possible?

To put it a briefer way: Faster internet and capless internet. Which do you view as more important, and which is more likely to happen first?

Alternatively, way back in the day when we were on a Paradise connection, they used to charge a tenth of the cost of normal traffic for packets sent inside New Zealand. Do you think that reverting to a local charges model would work, in the meantime?

Thanks for your time. This is great P.R. on you guys' behalf.

Balchy

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#152030 28-Jul-2008 12:13

Dr Reynolds,

A couple of questions:

1. I know a few years back there was plans to create more redundancies on the fibre network by adding additional fibres to the then eastern/western fibres. Back then there was a rodent attack on one and an auger incident on the other means well over 100,000 lines cut. Has this vulnerability in the network been fixed?

2. With the cable location service now being answered in australia - 124 being shut down, is there a possibility of more outages due to the lack of local knowledge of the various areas. I know of multiple incidents where fibre and high capicity cable cuts have been avoided thanks to the 124 staff knowing the area and the goings on in the area.

Thanks for you time.

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Xt1ncT

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#152040 28-Jul-2008 12:49

Dr Reynolds,

Coming from the UK myself I know I used to get unlimited data via my old Cable Modem connection, yet here in NZ we are limited to a certain amount of data.

Why is that, and don;t you think you'd get a huge run on your competitors by removing the caps and introducing a fair use policy?

Regards

Rob

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#152169 28-Jul-2008 19:34

Hows the change in pace been, living downunder in New Zealand, and having to drop off a couple of zeros on all the projections and figures? Is it easier to manage a big rollout, on a much smaller scale, or does it make it tougher because of the smaller teams having to specialise in more things?

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