Newcall chief suggests rural users take over

By RICHARD BRADDELL

The telecommunications inquiry recommendation that Telecom foot all Kiwi Share losses will result in poorly developed rural services, Newcall Communications chief executive Norman Nicholls says.

"I was really disappointed that the inquiry seemed to push the whole Kiwi Share issue back on to Telecom," he said, paraphrasing the inquiry's recommendation as stipulating that Telecom should provide local services, including a low-speed data service of admittedly dubious value, but not get any funding for doing so.

"That's almost guaranteeing that the rural community will continue to have substandard service, because what's the incentive for Telecom to invest any more money?" Mr Nicholls said.

"Fourteen kilobits. Who's going to be satisfied with even that today, let alone in two or three years' time?"

Instead, he argued that other options, such as a maximum 1c a minute charge levied on all toll calls, should be explored as ways of helping fund higher quality services in rural areas.

But rather than directing toll levy funding at Telecom, Mr Nicholls suggested that the money be made directly available to rural communities to set up their own services if they wished.

While that funding might not cover the entire cost of setting up high-speed internet in rural areas, Mr Nicholls said rural users had historically contributed to the cost of telecommunications and he believed they would be willing to make reasonable contributions for high bandwidth services.