TelstraClear - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• TUANZ's new CEO, Craig Young, to start in October

  Craig Young will take over the reins of Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) following the departure of CEO Paul Brislen, starting October 13th 2014.

• Auckland City to spend $5.5m on call centre solution

  Auckland Council has revealed the value of a contract with Vodafone/TelstraClear to consolidate its call centres.

• Opinion: Vodafone plus TelstraClear - good or bad for you?

  It has been almost two weeks since Vodafone announced its intention to take over TelstraClear for $840 million. As number two in the market, the new Vodafone will have over a quarter of the fixed line internet market compared to Telecom’s half. What are customers and the broader industry going to get with the new Vodafone? What’s the impact of the number two and three players being combined?

• TelstraClear sale to Vodafone could limit UFB take-up, academic warns

  If Vodafone buys TelstraClear it may extend the life of the copper network, at the expense of the government-backed Ultra Fast Broadband roll out, says academic Brownyn Howell.

• ComCom to investigate Sky TV's contracts with telcos

  The Commerce Commission will investigate Sky TV’s contracts with internet service providers, chair Mark Berry announced today.

• Chorus pushing costs onto RSPs: TelstraClear

  TelstraClear is refusing to sign a wholesale agreement to provide retail services on Chorus’s Ultra Fast Broadband network because it says Chorus is trying to push some of the connection cost onto Retail Service Providers.

• Vector's CFO quits and moves to TelstraClear

  Chief Financial Officer appointments in the local ICT scene were all the buzz on the NZX yesterday.

• TelstraClear texting carpark payment customers to be refunded GST

  TelstraClear will refund customers who use its TXT-a-park car park payment service, and who have been mistakenly charged GST since the service was launched last year.

• Select Committee majority recommends telco bill

  The Finance and Expenditure committee has recommended that the controversial Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be passed – with some changes.

• TelstraClear announces rate cuts in resonse to MTR ruling

  A statement from TelstraClear today in reaction to yesterday's MTR ruling reads: "TelstraClear Chief Executive Allan Freeth announced today that its residential mobile to mobile call rate has been slashed immediately by more than a third to just 19 cents a minute for new and existing customers.
  “I believe this will be the best rate in the market and underlies our commitment to consumers. We are providing the benefits of the new pricing issued by the Commerce Commission yesterday, even before we receive the benefit of lower costs ourselves, Dr Freeth said this morning.
  “Because the plans we offer are simple and cost-effective for customers, we’re able to move quickly and make substantial price adjustments to benefit our customers. A similar thing happened last year when we doubled internet data caps, at no additional charge, on many of our residential plans.”
  Dr Freeth says TelstraClear and its predecessors have been fighting against monopolistic rorts in the New Zealand telecommunications market for more than 20 years.
  “I have framed on my wall a copy of the first phone bill that wasn’t a Telecom one. It’s a reminder of the long and fraught battle to bring down a monopoly and give New Zealanders choice and fair prices. Yesterday’s decision by the Commerce Commission shows that the war isn’t over. TelstraClear is committed to continue fighting.
  “The decision on mobile termination rates reinforces the need to have the Commerce Commission involved in the Government’s planned ultra-fast broadband (UFB) roll-out. Perhaps now the Minister will see the light and agree, especially with this and Telecom’s $12 million fine for anti-competitive behaviour fresh in his mind."
  Freeth re-iterates in the statement TelstraClear's advertising campaign expressing concerns about the UFB process.

• Cost of TelstraClear campaign could reach $1m

  TelstraClear has spent around $750,000 on its advertising campaign opposing the Telecommunications Amendment (TSO Broadband and Other Matters) Bill.

• TelstraClear TV campaign slams 'UFB Bill'

  TelstraClear is launching a television campaign criticising the Telecommunications Amendment (TSO Broadband and Other Matters) Bill, which will enact the changes necessary to proceed with the government's $1.5 billion Ultra Fast Broadband network.

• Telecom's FTTN rollout gives it the advantage in UFB: Freeth

  TelstraClear CEO Allan Freeth is “95 per cent certain” that Telecom will get the bulk of the Ultra Fast Broadband initiative – the remaining 25 areas, or around 80 percent of the build.

• Controversy continues on Telecomms Bill's second day

  Woosh’s Rod Inglis struck a controversial note right at the beginning of the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee’s hearings on the Telecommunications Amendment Bill. Picking up his theme of the outdated nature of the Vodafone 3G solution adopted for rural broadband, He said “there’s not even a consideration in the bill of what pricing for 4G might be."

• TelstraClear CEO calls govt process a democratic farce

  TelstraClear CEO Allan Freeth claims that holding select committee hearings within days of receiving the initial submissions to the Telecommunications Ammendment Bill “shows a stunning lack of respect for New Zealand’s democratic process”.