Labour asks for government to question Telecom on XT outages

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Labour asks for government to question Telecom on XT outages

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283 posts

Ultimate Geek

#301772 24-Feb-2010 12:05

exportgoldman:
I think it should be like Taxi's, to become a Taxi driver you have to maintain certain standards and offer a 24 hour service because of the nature of their business. There were penalties and your license could be revoked if you broke these rules.

I believe Telco's should have to have a similar laws, where if you register as a Telco, you had to have certain SLA's for your services offered, as they are essential services, even if offered by a private company.

I believe that is already in place, but does not cover mobile phones, only fixed lines.

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AndrewTD

292 posts

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#301780 24-Feb-2010 12:31

IMHO there is absolutely no need, or place, for the government to get involved in this - other than for the rather concerning event around the 111 voice call not getting through.
I think that has brought to light a shortfall in the current design of 111 call handling on mobile phone networks. (Not seen before no doubt as no-one else has a mobile phone network this broken!!)

What really astounds me about all this though, is that XT customers are on the whole, not moving to VF. Typical XT user comments are often of the form: "I'm really annoyed by the XT outages, I'm angry, and I'm thinking about changing provider."

If it was me, I think it highly likely I would have changed provider after the second outage.
I guess those term contracts really are locking the people in. If not legally now, certainly they are a strong mental barrier (inertia) to overcome.

kind regards Andrew TD

MikeyPI

450 posts

Ultimate Geek

#301781 24-Feb-2010 12:43

Talk doing the rounds is 4+ outages would give you grounds to complain via the Consumer Guarantees Act, namely being fit for the purpose intended, if they didnt waive the terminations fees in the contracts.

AndrewTD

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#301783 24-Feb-2010 12:48

Yes - but the CGA, as I understand it, only applies to private consumers, and is normally contracted out of for business customers.
I get the impression from Paul Reynold's suitably vague statement, that if anyone asked to get out of their contract, that they would allow an early termination - presumably with some reduction in penalty.
Be interested to hear from anyone here that has terminated their XT contract early. Did it cost you anything?
(Mind you - this is all getting a bit OT from the OP!)

kind regards Andrew TD

wazzageek

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#301788 24-Feb-2010 13:13

AndrewTD: Yes - but the CGA, as I understand it, only applies to private consumers, and is normally contracted out of for business customers.
I get the impression from Paul Reynold's suitably vague statement, that if anyone asked to get out of their contract, that they would allow an early termination - presumably with some reduction in penalty.
Be interested to hear from anyone here that has terminated their XT contract early. Did it cost you anything?
(Mind you - this is all getting a bit OT from the OP!)

Why should those who entered into a contract have to pay a penalty when the other party failed to keep up their end of contract (supplying a service)? CGA aside, Telecom have actually failed to provide a stable service - if I was affected and I wasn't interested in giving telecom a 5th chance, I would explain quite clearly that I would not be paying a penalty for early termination due to a failure to provide the service.

As for Labour making noises ... that's what they do - Politics and hot air. I see no reason for the government to get involved - I do have faith that Telecom will be doing what they can to fix the issue. (Of course, I'm on XT and north of Taupo ... if that flavours my opinion somewhat).

Perhaps the Labour party all have shiny new XT mobiles?

Cymro

283 posts

Ultimate Geek

#301789 24-Feb-2010 13:15

MikeyPI: Talk doing the rounds is 4+ outages would give you grounds to complain via the Consumer Guarantees Act, namely being fit for the purpose intended, if they didnt waive the terminations fees in the contracts.

There was some shocking advice given out on Campbell live last night around this:

"If you have been affected by 4 outages then your rights are pretty much whatever you want them to be"

From a legal standpoint, I wonder if they actually even bothered to review the mobile contracts and how the CGA applies to the service defined (best efforts..)?

Don't get me started on the free adverts and promo for Voda/2Degrees at the end of the piece...

ronindanbo

180 posts

Master Geek

#301796 24-Feb-2010 13:45

tha Government should not be involved, as previously stated there are plenty of competitors who should be able to supply the customer with an alternative. I find it ironic that the 'holier than thou' Labour Party are telling the government to do something when the XT Network was built as a result of threats from the ten Labour Government, so hypocritical.

MikeyPI

450 posts

Ultimate Geek

#301994 25-Feb-2010 10:58

ronindanbo: tha Government should not be involved, as previously stated there are plenty of competitors who should be able to supply the customer with an alternative. I find it ironic that the 'holier than thou' Labour Party are telling the government to do something when the XT Network was built as a result of threats from the ten Labour Government, so hypocritical.

Wow that last line has to be blantant bs..
1st Telcom are a private company, 2nd The govt didnt contract out, nor build the network.....

ronindanbo

180 posts

Master Geek

#301997 25-Feb-2010 11:01

MikeyPI:
ronindanbo: tha Government should not be involved, as previously stated there are plenty of competitors who should be able to supply the customer with an alternative. I find it ironic that the 'holier than thou' Labour Party are telling the government to do something when the XT Network was built as a result of threats from the ten Labour Government, so hypocritical.

Wow that last line has to be blantant bs..
1st Telcom are a private company, 2nd The govt didnt contract out, nor build the network.....

you need to learn how to read, at no point did I say the government built the network.

patatrat

261 posts

Ultimate Geek

#301999 25-Feb-2010 11:10

ronindanbo:
MikeyPI:
ronindanbo: tha Government should not be involved, as previously stated there are plenty of competitors who should be able to supply the customer with an alternative. I find it ironic that the 'holier than thou' Labour Party are telling the government to do something when the XT Network was built as a result of threats from the ten Labour Government, so hypocritical.

Wow that last line has to be blantant bs..
1st Telcom are a private company, 2nd The govt didnt contract out, nor build the network.....

you need to learn how to read, at no point did I say the government built the network.

I don't know if the XT network was acutally built as a result of threats from the then Labour Government or not.

However, MikeyPI's point is probably something along the lines of this:

I ask you to do something.

You do it, but mess it up so it breaks all the time.

I ask you to fix it, so it doesn't break.

In no way am I hypocritical.

ronindanbo

180 posts

Master Geek

#302001 25-Feb-2010 11:11

patatrat:
ronindanbo:
MikeyPI:
ronindanbo: tha Government should not be involved, as previously stated there are plenty of competitors who should be able to supply the customer with an alternative. I find it ironic that the 'holier than thou' Labour Party are telling the government to do something when the XT Network was built as a result of threats from the ten Labour Government, so hypocritical.

Wow that last line has to be blantant bs..
1st Telcom are a private company, 2nd The govt didnt contract out, nor build the network.....

you need to learn how to read, at no point did I say the government built the network.

I don't know if the XT network was acutally built as a result of threats from the then Labour Government or not.?

However, MikeyPI's point is probably something along the lines of this:

I ask you to do something.

You do it, but mess it up so it breaks all the time.

I ask you to fix it, so it doesn't break.

I no way am I hypocritical.

You are when you try and blame it on the current government :-)

patatrat

261 posts

Ultimate Geek

#302003 25-Feb-2010 11:16

ronindanbo:

You are when you try and blame it on the current government :-)

Labour is blaming the XT failures on the current government? That strikes me as odd. Can you provide a link?

ronindanbo

180 posts

Master Geek

#302007 25-Feb-2010 11:22

it was some comment Goff made in one of the many stories on Stuff, cant find it now but it really got my blood boiling after knowing the history of this whole thing.

patatrat

261 posts

Ultimate Geek

#302016 25-Feb-2010 11:32

ronindanbo: it was some comment Goff made in one of the many stories on Stuff, cant find it now but it really got my blood boiling after knowing the history of this whole thing.

If Labour or Goff have blamed the XT failures on the Government, you would not be the only one with your blood boiling. I'd imagine that there would be a number of articles in a number of different news outlets regarding any comment made like that. The concept of them being able to blame the Government for these failures is beyond belief. I doubt even Goff would be that silly.

And now you can't find the quote.

So lets chalk this one up to your over active imagination and a slight case of only hearing (or reading) what you want to hear (read). Not every story needs to be a chance for you to bash Labour. Don't worry, you'll get another chance soon enough.

MikeyPI

450 posts

Ultimate Geek

#302095 25-Feb-2010 14:15

Ronindanbo, Are you aware of how opposition politics works? You dont blithely agree with the current govt, you take any populist topic, try and link it to the current admin, and campaign hard.

Goffs about to start his anti-GST hike tour now, exact same blue print.

If you think Labour / National are any better / worse than each other, your on a slippery slide to fooling yourself.
Can you please detail your "knowledge" of the history of XT?

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