Thanks for the good times Telecom.

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Thanks for the good times Telecom.

aimsy007

145 posts

Master Geek

#89534 4-Sep-2011 17:03

I have had my home phone and internet with Telecom for the past 15 years. On a 60gb (about to be upgraded to 80gb) plan and home phone package. We were not tied into any contract and this was costing me $140 per month - too much for my liking as both my wife and I are on mobile plans with Vodafone. We decided that what had to give was the home phone.

I went into a local Telecom store to discuss options for retaining broadband and cutting of our home line phone. The answer was clear and simple - you can't. If you want your home line disconnected that is fine but we will not deliver naked broadband to you. I explained that if they could not provide me with naked broadband then I would have to seek it out elsewhere. The rep was very pleasant and the reality was she could do nothing more.

I am continually dumbfounded by Telecom's (and Vodafone's for that matter) ability to get a grasp on what the trends are out in the 'real' world. My line of work is with people - lots of them. I have seen a huge swing away from clients having landline phones to mobile. To me this seems to be the logical and cost effective way for the majority of the population to head, which brings me to my the point of this thread.

I was happy with Telecom and was simply trying to reduce our family costs by terminating a home phone line. I did not want to leave Telecom but was left with no other option.

My solution was to sign up for naked broadband from Vodafone. My wife and I have arrived at our desired destination of reducing home IT costs by approximately $100 per month.

Mission accomplished for us. Mission failure for Telecom.

PS.1: I am dumbfounded by Vodafone as well given that neither them nor Telecom has the nous to take 2degrees head on and deliver a call package to match them. The trickle of people trending to 2degrees is steadily becoming a torrent and unless Vodafone lifts is game in the next 12 months it may well be goodbye to them as well.

PS.2: Naked broadband with Vodafone has been on par with Telecom so no gripes with the change across.....at this stage.

oxnsox

1923 posts

Uber Geek

#516503 4-Sep-2011 17:10

You may find Telecoms take on Naked BB may change once they split. Right now I'm guessing they have a duty to offer you fixed line packages... VF and others don't. Once Chorus is a seperate entity then Telecom may well offer better options.

But then right now Telecom can offer you all your Telco products on one Bill. VF can't.

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mattwnz

19389 posts

Uber Geek

#516504 4-Sep-2011 17:13

I don't really blame telecom, and they are in the business of selling fixed line calling at the moment. The thing is that salaries are going up, so with inflation costs should go up. This is offset by the amount of bandwidth you get etc increasing. Companies would prefer you pay the same, and you get more, than you paying less. When a company is facing decreased revenues with increased competition and changing technologies, they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. At some stage the margins will be so tiny that isps won't be able to compete. Already isps are subcontracting out their call centres overseas to decrease costs, and support is suffering. The low cost isps are the ones you hear the most complaints about, where it doesn't appear they have enough support capacity to service the clients. Decreasing margins are one reason why HP is giving up selling computers, as prices have come down so much it just isn't worth it for them

wreck90

780 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#516526 4-Sep-2011 17:52

aimsy007:
I was happy with Telecom and was simply trying to reduce our family costs by terminating a home phone line. I did not want to leave Telecom but was left with no other option.

Good to see the market working well.

Churn is a fact of life for ISP's . Each ISP strikes an optimal balance between revenue and churn .

Telecom could offer naked broadband which may attract a few subscribers but at the same time cuts revenue. POTS services provide a tidy baseline profit for telecom - maybe not if significant subscriber numbers ditch it for naked adsl/IP telephony.

This scenario will become increasingly irrelevant with the roll-out of national fiber. Looking forward to that.

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#516530 4-Sep-2011 18:01

welcome aboard from Vodafone