Today we received a slightly panicky call to arms in our rural mailbox. The leaflet urges us to make a submission on the Telecommunications Bill opposing for at least 25 years (!) the removal of copper services in New Zealand. The logic seems to be that the roll-out of fibre to urban areas will mean the replacement of copper in rural areas with ‘microwave systems’. Of course we all know how bad microwave is. Just look at what it does to the food in your oven! It also gives you brain cancer and makes you dumber. Like the people behind this new campaign.
These latter-day Luddites also want to ‘require the continued maintenance of current copper communications systems and the provision of new copper systems if people request them’, and to ensure ‘the provision of wired (their emphasis) voice and broadband networks to rural New Zealanders.’ In other words, they want a 21st-century guarantee of dial-up!
I don’t know that there is a plot to do away with current copper-based landlines. I haven’t heard of one. But the people behind this campaign seem to think that the Bill ‘aims to get rid of “unnecessary” copper landline service in New Zealand’, while ‘microwave-based wireless systems would almost definitely be installed to replace the removed copper systems.’
And who is behind this dastardly conspiracy? According to the leaflet, ‘a big reason the NZ government has not yet acted to protect the NZ public from the health risks posed by microwave-based technologies is that the telecommunications industry has held sway over our government decisions, with the result that New Zealanders have been exposed to unhealthy radiation on a daily basis for several years now.’
I don’t know if the people behind this are just locals or if they have gone into business with Colin Craig. They call themselves EMR Health NZ Ltd but a Google search doesn’t find anything.
I think I will go stand in front of my Sky dish for awhile to see if my brain heats up. After that I will try the RBI antenna that provides our Internet and telephone service. Then maybe a cell phone. And then I will go microwave my supper, have a vaccination, and put fluoride on my teeth!