Net users left up in air over 0867

By Michael Foreman

Telecom's 0867 internet access scheme appears to be in tatters, with Ihug users being told to revert to their previous access numbers if they are having problems.

Ihug director Tim Wood said an indefinite and company-wide exemption from the mandatory 0867 access system had been granted by Telecom.

An emergency meeting with senior Telecom management and technicians would take place at his company's premises today "in an effort to achieve some form and structure" to the 0867 changeover.

Mr Wood said Ihug had received "piles of e-mails" from users who were experiencing unexpected disconnections, abnormally slow connect speeds and spurious "line busy" signals.

"It seems to us that it's simply down to a lack of capacity that has been allocated to the 0867 network," he said.

Ihug yesterday sent an e-mail to its residential customers advising them that they could switch back to the direct access numbers and would not be charged, but only if they were experiencing problems with 0867 access.

"What we don't want is a wholesale migration away from 0867," said Mr Wood.

"That would take the burden off the system and make everything look as if it's working."

Ihug is the latest in a list of least 10 internet service providers to have been granted extensions to complete the switch to the 0867 gateway because Telecom has failed to provide the service by its own November 1 deadline.

Voyager, which last week was given until February 2000 to make the transition, threatened to pull out of the arrangement if service levels could not be maintained.

Mike Ward, spokesman for Voyager's Sydney-based parent company Uunet, said yesterday: "We were very unenthusiastic about the move in the first place. To us it's a reflection of the remarkably uncompetitive environment in New Zealand. There wasn't even a vague hope of meeting the original August deadline and they [Telecom] are still not in a position to provide the service.

"The proof of the pudding will be whether Telecom can provide an identical level of service to providers and their own customers. If that's not the case then we'll all be going back to the previous local dial-up arrangements."

Telecom spokesman Glen Sowry said that with internet usage currently running at 300 million minutes a month, it was inevitable that there would be problems but they would be overcome.

"We've made a commitment to the Government and providers to maintain the standard of services," he said.

Meanwhile, the Government, which last September said that it would legally enforce the Kiwi Share obligations against Telecom if assurances including service standards were not met, appeared to be maintaining a hands-off policy on the issue.

Communications Minister Maurice Williamson said there were some teething problems but they were being dealt with.

"Once the service is fully operational, Telecom will be expected to maintain the agreed quality of service."