patrick@sideways.gen.nz (Pat Cain) (11/19/90)
RECENT TELECOM NEWS FROM NEW ZEALAND
Here are a few snippets of information and recent news about the
New Zealand Telecom system for anyone who is interested.
0) Recent changes to the telecom system
1) Clear Communications - rival company to Telecom
2) Last manually operated exchange in NZ closed
3) Problems with 111 emergency service
0) Recent changes
For those who didn't already know, the telephone system in New Zealand
was run as a government department by the New Zealand Post Office.
Over the past few years it has been privatised and sold off to various
New Zealand and American companies.
Telecom still holds a virtual monopoly over the cellular, toll and
local call services.
Before Telecom were privatised/sold, they ran a large number of
Television advertisements where the following three promises were
carved into a large stone.
Telecom "voluntarily" made these three promises to the public:
1) Free local calls for residential customers
2) The cost of residential phone services would not rise above the
cost of living unless Telecom's profits were unreasonably affected.
3) Residential phone services would remain at the same rate throughout
the country (even though it costs Telecom more to maintian these
in rural areas).
Major changes since Telecom have been privatised and sold off:
BEFORE ...
* Local area calls free (ie. no time charge)
* Toll services subsidising local area services.
AFTER ...
* Businesses pay for calls by the minute. Residential accounts rise in
price dramatically, ~$NZ35/month... local calls still free.
* Cheaper toll calls; More expensive monthly charge.
* Businesses now have to pay to make directory inquiries.
* Various services rise in price.
* Telecom fire a large proportion of their staff and begin contracting
out work such as phone installations.
* Time taken to install phones decreases from several months to two days
or less!
* Tone-dial, SPC exchanges installed. Services such as conference calling,
call waiting, call diversion, do not disturb and so on made available.
* Telecom start bombarding everyone with 'cute' advertisments in
Television, Radio and Print - Telecom become the biggest spending
advertiser in the country. Residential subscribers receive an
information pamphlet each month full of useful and useless information.
* Telecom begin to convert the whole country's telephone numbering system
FROM:
Over 80 area codes of a varying length and varying
length telephone numbers
TO:
Five single digit area codes with all telephone numbers
being seven digits.
1) Clear Communications
Just a couple of days ago Clear Communications announced a that they
would be forming an rival company to Telecom.
Shareholders in Clear Communications are NZ Railways (who have fibre
optic links installed along their railway lines throughout most of the
country), Todd Corporation, Television New Zealand, MCI Communications
and Bell Canada International.
New Zealand has a population of only 3.5 million yet Clear Comms says
NZ will be a highly competitive market place. They claim that their
system will utilise the most up to date technology in the world, and
that they expect the NZ telecom market will grow rapidly.
They expect to have the first business connections by early January,
1991. And general/residential connections by 1st April 1991.
2) The Last Manual Telephone Exchange in NZ
The Claris Post Office Exchange on Great Barrier Island operated by
Sue Daly was recently decommissioned. Great Barrier Island has a
population of 1000 people, some of whom are sad to see the exchange
go, others are pleased. After dark, when the exchange was not
staffed, only emergency calls could be made.
3) Emergency Service Problems
During the last few years, as Telecom has been upgrading their
exchanges, there seem to have been more problems with Telecom's
emergency service (111). Incidents such as number-unobtainable,
number-busy and being diverted to tolls operators on other parts of
the country have occured. At least one death has occured due to calls
not being put through correctly to the emergency service.
A friend here in Wellington recently called 111 to report a fire and
was greeted with "Tolls".
Friend: "Fire please".
The operator seemed confused, and rustled some paper around
(presumably looking for the number of the fire service) and said
"Ummmm..." and said "That's Wellington isn't it?", then a few seconds
later said "That's an emergency service isn't it?".
Friend: "YES!".
Operator says "You should be ringing on 111!".
Friend: "I just have!".
Operator says "Oh well, in that case one moment please..". Operator
then put friend through to fire service.
The friend didn't report this to Telecom, but as can be seen from this
editorial, he's not the only one who has had problems.
IF ALL ELSE FAILS, SCREAM
[Editorial from Evening Post, November 12, 1990]
FIRE, accident, assault in the neighbourhood -- most people's reflex
reaction is to dial 111 to ask for an emergency service. Every month
28,000 people do and are efficiently connected.
But occasionally a call goes wrong. In July a major computer problem
blocked a Dunedin family trying desperately to call an ambulance for a
man who had collapsed, and who died before help could be summoned.
Last week emergency calls from Dunedin and Blenheim flew around the
country, causing delays before the messages got through. Telecom's
explanation was hardly reassuring: "Unfortunately a tecnicality meant
that two calls for Dunedin and two for Blenheim emergency services
were put through to the right emergency service, but in the wrong
city." Unfortunately, indeed.
Incidents like these send a shudder through people who wonder whether
they too will be at the mercy of a computer hiccup if ever they need
to dial 111.
Politicians, too, have expressed alarm at the lack of a backup system.
The previous government thought of asking one of its departments to
look into the matter, but with Telecom privatised could not work out
which department should be responsible.
When Telecom was sold it gave no undertaking to continue the 111
service. It was not one of the three public guarantees carved in
stone, and there is no formal contract to provide it. But it was part
of the package it inherited and, commercial pressures not
withstanding, Telecom feels bound to maintain it, and gives emergency
calls top priority.
The ordinary person is understandably mystified, however, when a call
for the police in Dunedin is answered in Palmerston North, relayed to
Christchurch, and returns to Dunedin by way of the police network, as
occured last week.
The first of these steps happened as it should, because the
Christchurch nerve centre was out for maintenance and calls were
automatically diverted to the nearest 111 exchange: Palmerston North.
The second should not have happened, but the tag showing the area of
origin was missing -- a glitch that needs urgent attention - and the
operator who answered put the call through to the Christchurch police
instead. The third need not have happened: when the operator found it
was the wrong city she could have reconnected to Dunedin, but the
police in Christchurch chose to take the message and pass it on
themselves, with consequent delay.
Because life and death ride on the system the public and emergency
services have a right to be concerned whenever something goes wrong.
But there is certainly no cause to lose faith in the system.
Callers themselves can help by observing elementary essentials like
waiting for the dial tone, dialling 111 firmly, waiting up to 10
seconds for the operator to answer, saying precisely where the problem
is (particularly if using a cellphone) -- and not clogging the lines
with the 20,000 false calls they are making every month. People
making needless calls might be less inclined to do so if they realised
their numbers are all identified.
As for a total backup, that would mean duplicating the present
telephone network. Telecom could do it. But in the end it's the
users who would have to pay.
Patrick Cain )) Voice: +64 4 698330 (GMT+12)
PO Box 2060 (( Modem: +64 4 661231 (Sideways BB, BBC/Archimedes/Text)
Wellington, NZ )) Email: patrick@sideways.gen.nz or patrick@actrix.co.nz