Telephones
A Phone in every home
Not long after the first telephones were used in New Zealand, in Dunedin in 1879, the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department was formed, to manage the development of the country’s telephone network.
This structure continued until 1987 when as part of wide government reforms the New Zealand Post Office (NZPO) was restructured, and the telephone services split off as a separate company, called Telecom.
In 1988 New Zealand became the world’s first completely deregulated telecommunications market, and Telecom shares were traded on the stockmarket.
Telecom’s first competitor was Clear Communications, and BellSouth soon followed. Both of these companies have since been sold, the first becoming TelstraClear, and the latter Vodafone.
However only Telecom had a physical network extending to every property. So other suppliers have had to negotiate with them for access to this ‘last mile’.
In 2011 in order to participate in the government’s planned Ultrafast Broadband network, Telecom agreed to split off the lines network company, Chorus.
The rise of the internet has now almost made a separate commentary on the telephone redundant. Within a decade it is likely all communications devices will be connected over a single network – and that we will each have a single communications device that does it all.
Until then, you can still have a phoneline to your door – almost all existing households in New Zealand already have a phoneline which for most households will still be supplied by Chorus or its antecedents.
Mobile phones
All telcos have offered mobile phone services – and Vodafone has always been a mobile phone company. Lately these more established players have been joined by the NZ owned newcomer 2 Degrees.
Just as there were disputes over Telecom’s ownership of the last mile of the physical network, so have the Mobile networks argued over the costs of allowing users of the competitor’s network to complete calls to their customers.
Scrutiny of this area became intense in 2011 as users became aware of a large apparent difference in the completion costs charged by NZ carriers compared to those overseas.
It is hoped the additon of 2 Degrees will help lower prices. However currently mobile phone charges are generally higher than in most other countries.
-bt txtng is stll spr chp!!
Earthquakes and telephones
An interesting lesson from the Christchurch earthquakes suggests it may be worthwhile keeping hold of an old style analogue phone.
Whenever the digital networks have lost power the phones would not work as they require power to operate. Old style analogue phones don’t need to be plugged into a power source, and so can work when a digital phone may not.
This may be worth keeping in mind if you still have an old analogue phone in the house.
