Mobile Phone Outrage
Although slightly belated, I felt given my bias towards business and economics that it be fitting that I comment on the ridiculous mobile phone calling prices in New Zealand and how it is that reason why us New Zealanders resort to txting more than any other country in the OECD.
There was quite an extensive debate in class in the first week as to whether it is New Zealand culture that dictates our calling and txting patterns in New Zealand or whether it is because of the ridiculously high calling rates. My argument is that it is purely the calling rates. The Commerce Commission has been gathering statistics and reporting them every quarter in regards to telecommunications in New Zealand. The most recent report shows that New Zealand comes 25th out of 30 in the OECD countries for mobile phone pricing; this is the highest it’s ever been, we were 30th in 2005 when the reporting from the Commerce Commission started. This statistic is an average and is taken from 16 different categories of mobile phone usage. The most recent figure is boosted through Vodafone coming 15th and 19th in two areas. This comes about from the partial deregulating of the telecommunications industry. We come last in 2 areas and second to last in 3 areas; no surprise that Telecom is the culprit for the last places. So while you may tell me that in New Zealand we have a culture of txting, I will not buy into this one single bit. The statistics prove this. If you want to get hold of someone immediately you are going to call them, not sit there txting away. If you want to have conversations with people, you are more likely to ring them, but considering that the youth of today do not have everlasting disposable incomes, or can’t face their parents when they get the phone bill, they txt, because it is cheaper! They have in-depth conversations through txts that could occur much more efficiently through calling, yet the high prices prevent this. Yes, txting may have its advantages and can be used more effectively in some cases, but New Zealand’s high calling prices have engraved a path for txting to take over some of the functions that calling has. I am on Vodafone and use “bestmate” each month. I use it not to have unlimited txts to someone, but so I can call them anytime, anywhere, making them more accessible and providing me with more efficient communication. Bestmate is in my opinion the only calling based option that works out really cheap in New Zealand. The majority of Telecommunications companies marketing is to do with txting, like txt2000 and $10 txt. This is simply because it is so much cheaper in New Zealand for the companies to provide txting and therefore cheaper for the consumers to txt.
So let me know what you think, I am hugely biased towards the whole business side of things, yet I strongly believe that if we started off with cheaper calling prices, the culture that has developed from these high calling prices would not be one of txting, but one much like America, where we call. We are now so used to the high prices and so used to txting; it is very sad and nearly criminal in my opinion. As for why are prices are so high, that’s a whole different story!
OECD statistics (clicking here downloads a PDF file)
Article from NBR (National Business Review)
Luke Versalko
www.myspace.com/luke_versalko
There was quite an extensive debate in class in the first week as to whether it is New Zealand culture that dictates our calling and txting patterns in New Zealand or whether it is because of the ridiculously high calling rates. My argument is that it is purely the calling rates. The Commerce Commission has been gathering statistics and reporting them every quarter in regards to telecommunications in New Zealand. The most recent report shows that New Zealand comes 25th out of 30 in the OECD countries for mobile phone pricing; this is the highest it’s ever been, we were 30th in 2005 when the reporting from the Commerce Commission started. This statistic is an average and is taken from 16 different categories of mobile phone usage. The most recent figure is boosted through Vodafone coming 15th and 19th in two areas. This comes about from the partial deregulating of the telecommunications industry. We come last in 2 areas and second to last in 3 areas; no surprise that Telecom is the culprit for the last places. So while you may tell me that in New Zealand we have a culture of txting, I will not buy into this one single bit. The statistics prove this. If you want to get hold of someone immediately you are going to call them, not sit there txting away. If you want to have conversations with people, you are more likely to ring them, but considering that the youth of today do not have everlasting disposable incomes, or can’t face their parents when they get the phone bill, they txt, because it is cheaper! They have in-depth conversations through txts that could occur much more efficiently through calling, yet the high prices prevent this. Yes, txting may have its advantages and can be used more effectively in some cases, but New Zealand’s high calling prices have engraved a path for txting to take over some of the functions that calling has. I am on Vodafone and use “bestmate” each month. I use it not to have unlimited txts to someone, but so I can call them anytime, anywhere, making them more accessible and providing me with more efficient communication. Bestmate is in my opinion the only calling based option that works out really cheap in New Zealand. The majority of Telecommunications companies marketing is to do with txting, like txt2000 and $10 txt. This is simply because it is so much cheaper in New Zealand for the companies to provide txting and therefore cheaper for the consumers to txt.
So let me know what you think, I am hugely biased towards the whole business side of things, yet I strongly believe that if we started off with cheaper calling prices, the culture that has developed from these high calling prices would not be one of txting, but one much like America, where we call. We are now so used to the high prices and so used to txting; it is very sad and nearly criminal in my opinion. As for why are prices are so high, that’s a whole different story!
OECD statistics (clicking here downloads a PDF file)
Article from NBR (National Business Review)
Luke Versalko
www.myspace.com/luke_versalko
posted by Salkz at 9:02 PM
4 Comments:
Psst, that link is massive! So much so that it has caused table breakage. You can fix this by linking to the article using the following code:
[a href="http://www.comcom.govt.nz/IndustryRegulation/Telecommunications/MonitoringandReporting/ContentFiles/Documents/Telco%20Key%20Stats%20-%20Quarterly%20Monitoring%20Report%20-%2031%20March%202007.pdf"]OECD statistics[/a]
You could also change the NBR link to something like this:
[a href="http://www.nbr.co.nz/print/print.asp?id=17776&cid=3&cname="]NBR : "NZ phone services expensive by OECD standards"[/a]
Be sure to change all the ['s to <'s ;)
-H
Well spotted. I can fix that now. Yes, always a good idea to make the clickable text words rather than a lengthy web address. Great post though.
On reading your post again, Luke, it occured to me that you imply that it has to be EITHER economic OR culture (and you vote for the former). But I don't think it has to be one or the other as the two things interact with each other. The economics can certainly encourage a culture of texting. But conversely, a culture of texting can also reinforce the pricing mechanisms of the Telcos who think that to win over customers they need to compete with each other on texting rather than prioritising voice calling. Does that make sense? Culture and economics both play their part and are never entirely separate from each other, is what I guess I am trying to say here.
re what you said Luke...
Yeah what you say make sense and to some extent I agree with that...I personally believe that it all stems from the high prices, therefore the economic side of things and if this were different, our txting and calling patterns would most probably be very different. So basically the economics has made the cultural aspect what it is...
I also chose to take a very one sided view, that way it leaves more room for argument from people who are of an opposing view.
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