I wrote in my blog this and got a couple of comments, and thought I should say it in the forum.
I read Chris Barton: in the NZHerald

NZHerald Quotes:
That's
bad and made worse when you consider the paltry $22 million a year
Telecom has invested on its rural network over the past 13 years,
covering both growth and replacement investment.
...
Adding
insult to injury, Telecom actually receives around $25 million a year
in subsidies from the rest of the telecommunications industry for
providing this clapped-out service.
...
rapacious monopoly power
What a steal, telecom was payed by other telco providers to matain a network, and that telecom scraped off 3 million a year from it.
The money was for the network, not for telecoms pockets. The pocket money should come thru the use of the network.