Telecom mobile phone customers on the network's XT and CDMA networks have experienced more intermittent outages today.

Some New Zealanders are likely to get a nasty shock while browsing the internet over the next few months - a web page on their computer saying "STOP!".

Telecom shares sank to new a low on the NZ sharemarket today, while rises in Fletcher Building, Contact Energy and other leaders helped carry the market higher.

New Zealand's government isn't trying to undermine Telecom by bolstering rural broadband services, Communications Minister Steven Joyce says.

Telecom's stock price hit an all-time low yesterday after it told the market that its share of the Government's new rural broadband initiative would cost it $168 million over three years.

Plans for a new high-speed link are expected to lead to lower internet prices and unlimited downloads for home connections.

A proposed optic fibre cable linking NZ, Australia and the USA would unleash billions of dollars of economic potential by connecting NZ businesses to global markets by 2013.

The chairman of the Shareholders Association has defended Telecom executives' high salaries, saying the company operates in a global market.