FryUp: 2 Degrees moves are underwhelming

It’s new and blue and eminently more readable. This week, the Computerworld website received a make-over and… it’s one of the better ones we’ve seen. The secret designer who sprung the new site upon the world obviously likes clear and simple designs, and that’s how it should be. And, err; it appears to be served up by Lotus Notes. Whodathunk that was possible?

The site looks good in all the major browsers, but sadly, still has to support Internet Exploder 6.

Great work overall.


Paul Reynolds

So Paul, you were in the Brixton Riots were you?

We’ll miss you.

- Paul Reynolds' People Points blog

- NZ net pioneer Paul Reynolds passes away

- Paul Reynolds: a contribution


2 Degrees on the Edge

You can tell we’re starved for mobile data options in New Zealand when everyone hoots with joy over 2 Degrees launching a data plan with 50MB for $6 at EDGE speeds. You did notice that it’s EDGE and not 3G, didn’t you? So it’s a bit faster than GPRS but not a patch on HSPA.

Not terribly exciting really, unlike Vodafone Australia’s iPad plans. Fifty ocker dollars buys you unlimited monthly 3G data across the pond, no doubt with some strings attached to the deal, but still better than anything we have here.

- 2degrees announces low-cost data and text offers

- Vodafone Australia data plans for iPad


Emergent demerger

Telecom has had a love and hate relationship with its fixed network for a while now. Not so long after the new millennium was ushered in, Telecom started making nails on whiteboard noises about how unprofitable its telephone customers on the fixed network are.

A huge amount of them were non-viable Telecom claimed, costing the incumbent $450 million a year apparently. Telecom was keen to dump those customers unless it was compensated for providing phone service to them. At the same time refused to hand them over to Annette Presley and Callplus for a dollar.

That’s history now, and those commercially non-viable customers and the fixed line network have continued to bring in hundreds of millions in revenue for Telecom over the years, with a little help from the rest of the industry in the form of the TSO Levy.

Last year, Telecom pooh-poohed the idea that spinning off Chorus, its fixed-network and infrastructure idea was a good idea. Too too expensive to demerger, Dr Reynolds said, and besides, copper’s cool and more than adequate for broadband needs in the foreseeable future.

Just over six months later, there’s a different tune coming out of Dr Reynolds. Now demerger makes sense so that Chorus can take part in the government’s Ultra-Fast Broadband project.

We’ll see how it goes. Last time Telecom’s Marko Bogoievski tried to hawk the fixed-line network back to us, the government turned it down. Not sure it makes more sense to buy back the copper and other bits now though.

- Chorus split costs prohibitive

- FryUp: Wrong number

- Telecom NZ says separated network unit may be sold