Tuanz calls for a national Day of Calling

The Telecommunications Users Association is calling on everyone with a phone, whether it’s mobile or landline, to call their provider and demand to know what their new rates will be, following the Commerce Commission decision to reduce mobile termination rates.

NBR wonders if, for many, it could turn into a national day of sitting on hold.

Asked which day, exactly, was the national Day of Calling, Tuanz business development manager Katherine Hall replied "Start now and let's not stop til we get some results."

Picking up a similar theme, Labour communications spokeswoman Clare Curran called on all mobile phone companies to immediately drop their retail prices.

The commission announced that it would regulate mobile pricing this morning, but only on the wholesale level of mobile termination rates, or charges between phone companies when calls or txts cross between their networks (which unfortunately may have helped spark Telecom's clamp-down on automated offshore txt services, used by many kosher companies as well as spammers and 2degrees competition entrants).

The commission wants the phone companies to pass on the cuts to retail customers, but Telecom, Vodafone and 2degrees have been shy of committing to any cuts. Telecom said it had cut rates already this year. 2degrees said anticipated mobile cuts were already priced into its plans.

"Telcos are coin operated"
Tuanz chief executive Paul Brislen - a former Vodafone comms manager - said telcos respond to one pressure above all else – money.

“Telcos are coin operated – if you want them to change their behaviour you have to affect their bottom line. All too often I’m contacted by disgruntled customers who can’t get a better deal from their telco and haven’t moved to a new provider. Vote with your wallet and take your dollar spend elsewhere.”

Termination rates have been regulated so that calls and TXTs to a mobile phone should be less expensive, but the Commission can’t require the telcos to pass the savings on to customers. We have to demand it, says Brislen.

“Ring the call centre, tell them you know the rates have come down and you want to know what your new price will be. Don’t take no for an answer – demand a better price. The Commerce Commission says there are 4.7 million cellphone users in New Zealand – we have the loudest voice in the country so let’s use it.”

The Commerce Commission has reduced the termination rate for a voice call from around 15 cents per minute to 7.48 cents per minute from today.

That means any company offering calls to a mobile phone now pays the mobile phone company nearly 8 cents a minute less than it did yesterday.

You should be entitled to a share in that, if not all of it.

TXT messages are even better – yesterday they cost around nine cents per minute, tomorrow they’re reduced to 0.06 per txt.
“That’s a huge reduction and TUANZ believes the customers should see the benefit of it. Demand your provider give you a better deal and if they can’t, move to one that can.”

“There are three mobile phone network providers in New Zealand today, and a further seven virtual network providers. In addition, there are dozens of ISPs that offer landline services, so ring around and see what kind of deal you can strike. Someone will offer you a better rate than the one you’re on today.”