Hi everyone i was about to join wxc's fusion service so i could do away with telecom altogether until i found out that i am apparently classed as a rural customer even though i live in a reasonably sized city!!!???? (Timaru) Because of this there price is $20 more which basically brings the cost back to about the same as telecom's. My question is basically how can this be and is it likely to change in the future. I understand that these 'rural' areas have been defined by the commerce commision but can't find anything on there site stating what comsitutes an area as being rural. What is happening here!??? How can the commerce commision call people living in cities rural customers??? I thought the comcom was supposed to stop companies charging unessarary levies etc not help them to do so. I am completlely bamboozled!!!!!
The list of exchanges defined as urban is listed in Appendix 1 of the Unbundled Copper Local Loop report. Basically anything not listed as urban is defined as non-urban and priced accordingly. In the Commissions mind its not an unneccesary levy but a reflection of the cost to service.
It is not likely to change in the future - the geographic deaveraging that was introduced is likely to be here for some time and is similar to Australia (they have 4 pricing zones).
Personally I think it will create a larger digital divide for NZ. But the UCLL report, if you can be bothered to wade through it, details why the Commerce Commission chose that approach.
Sixth Labour Government - "Vision without Execution is just Hallucination"
Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly
to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.
#29919 23-Jan-2009 11:38
