Consumer NZ
Telecommunications
18 June 2010Making sense of telco prices
We’re building a telecommunications price comparison website, similar to our Powerswitch site and we hope to have it up by the end of the year.
It’s a free, one-stop-shop for consumers to find the best deals from their telecommunications and internet providers. It will enable comparisons in fixed line, broadband internet, mobile and bundled services. It will also include customer service ratings and other non-price information.
Some $75,000 for the project has come via the Commerce Commission as part of a settlement the commission has reached with Telecom NZ over a misleading broadband promotion the company ran in 2008.
The site will provide independent information to consumers about all telecommunications products in a way that will make decisions easy on plans and prices.
We hope it will also help stimulate competition as we get behind the advertising hype and tell you what the deals really mean for you.
Credible, independent consumer information will be critical to help make sense of the options from all the players – big and small.
The site will operate in a similar way to Powerswitch, a site which enables comparisons of electricity and gas retailers’ plans and pricing.
We’re in the early stages but we see the target audience as consumers who want to make savings, are looking for new services, seeking advice before deciding on a provider or who find price comparisons confusing.
We’re open to ideas about what to include, so leave your comments below!
Comments
Good news. It is necessary I am afraid because the teleco companies are using the marketing tool of "confusion". Using this tool was admitted to by Theresa Gatting when she was head of Telecom and I see my ISP provider is also now using this tool.
Hi I think you need to include.
Price of plan per month.
How many gigabites of data is involved. What this means in as cost per gigabite. What the cost of more data is. What the upload and download speeds are. There are some horrendous plans out there trapping consumers who dont know what they are paying for with huge charges for extra data.
thank you
When are you expecting to have this up and running please?
We are expecting the site to be live in early February.
Another comment is the disconnection charge. I have been with Telecom and my boarder brought her Broadband contract home and my number went on to fax. When she moved on I was charged a connection fee of 60.55 for restoring my number which I had not disconnected.
Be careful when signing up to 2 Degrees Pay Monthly Plans.
One of the 'features' is the 37th clause in the contract which read "Your plan charges and Plan Benefits will be pro-rated form the date of Activation of your Pay Monthly Account until your first Billing Date". Obscure??? What that means is if you are on a plan of f say 210 to anyone in NZ then if you use more than 210 /30 = 7 call units ina day then you get billed for the additional units. So why don't they just front up and list that very importnat 'feature' in the marketing? Feeling misled - definitely!
Is this telecommunications site up yet, please, and if so what is its URL?
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