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Telecomorons

Entry 1151, on 2010-01-29 at 20:01:36 (Rating 4, News)

How hard can it be to implement a telecommunications technology which has been developed and fine-tuned in numerous other countries overseas and to get it working in New Zealand where a similar network is already operating? And the fact that a significant budget is available due to excessive profits squeezed from users through monopolistic tactics would make it easier. And when the successive CEOs have been paid a huge salary you would think they would make sure they got it right, really. Wouldn't you?

If you are not from New Zealand you probably don't have the slightest idea what I'm talking about, although I'm sure every country has its own examples of gross corporate incompetence. If you are from New Zealand you will no doubt recognise Telecom as the target of this tirade!

Telecom originally used the wrong technology (CDMA) for their cell network and have finally decided to follow (most of) the rest of the world and introduce a GSM network (more correctly 3G UMTS) like (almost) everyone else.

Their advertising made it look like the greatest network anywhere but after continual outages, poor performance, and other issues, I'm not seeing a lot of advertising any more. Maybe if they had spent more money on the network and less on lying to the public they might have got a system which works more reliably!

I have often ranted in the past about previous Telecom CEO, Theresa Gattung, and what a low life deceitful piece of scum she was. It seems like the current CEO, Paul Reynolds, is just as useless but maybe a bit better at hiding the dirty tricks his company engages in. Is that better? Its so hard to say with these people.

I know some of my critics will say that its not fair to blame the CEO for technical failures of the equipment his company runs, but he gets paid a lot to run the company and when its successful he takes the credit. He should also take the blame when things go pear shaped as they have done with monotonous regularity recently.

I have no reason to be too concerned about Telecom because I don't use any of their services directly (although I'm sure that some of my internet traffic traverses their network and I have had a few failures related to that on occasions). I use Vodafone as my cell network and yes, I know they are also a large corporation who don't really care about anything except their profits, but at least they operate a reasonably reliable service.

As I have said in the past: Vodafone isn't really a great company, it provides mediocre services at a quite inflated price, but its a lot better than Telecom! That's what you get in this wonderful market-driven, pure capitalist system: the ability to make a choice. Choice one: a pretty average, over-priced service provided by a big corporation which doesn't really care. Choice two: a below average, over-priced service provided by a big corporation which doesn't really care.

Isn't the free market wonderful?

Comment 1 (2598) by OJB on 2010-02-04 at 10:54:18:

Just heard that the hardware maintenance has been outsourced and it also sounds like Telecom have put in insufficient hardware to handle these situations. Sounds like Telecom are just maximising profit while minimising customer service. Typical!

Comment 2 (2604) by SBFL on 2010-02-14 at 22:19:37:

You might be interested to read this anecdote from Paul Holmes:
Telecom - Gormless and incompetent

Paul Holmes might have a ego bigger than Telecom's annual profits, but he paints a familiar picture here.

Comment 3 (2606) by OJB on 2010-02-15 at 08:45:51:

Yes, an interesting little anecdote. Of course I just see the crap service we get from all of our big companies as a consequence of the period in the 1980s when we sold off all our assets to overseas interests who only care about profit. Capitalism doesn't work (although, as I have said before, I'm not sure what would be better) and the whole system sucks! Idiots like Reynolds get paid a fortune for providing sub-standard services, indulging in dirty anti-competitive tactics, and siphoning billions overseas in profit. You've gotta live the free market!

Comment 4 (2608) by SBFL on 2010-02-16 at 10:32:35:

Of course I disagree with all that as merely John Minto spittle, not worth the socialist workers rag it was probably once written on. But can agree that Telecom still have some way to go in improving services.

Comment 5 (2610) by OJB on 2010-02-16 at 13:56:08:

Its unfortunate that people who are more oriented to the right will just not recognise the significant problems that capitalism has. I'm not suggesting we should throw it out and start a Soviet-style socialist state, just that we recognise that private ownership, free markets, and pure capitalism aren't always the best answers (in fact I would say they never are, but that's just a detail). I don't want you to say we should abandon capitalism, just recognise the problems are real!

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