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New Zealanders protest in streets about broadband
2006-03-06
The citizens of Wellington, New Zealand are taking their protest about the high prices of broadband to the streets.
Newstalk ZB reports that a group called Slingshot will gather outside the offices of Telecom, New Zealand’s telecom provider, in Wellington.
Annette Presley, the founder of Slingshot, will hand out 35,000 loaves of bread to illustrate the point that Telecom is only giving consumers the crumbs.
According to the protestors Telecom is ripping off New Zealanders.
South Africa faces many similar challenges with Telkom’s high ADSL prices hindering the uptake of broadband.
Telkom is the only fixed line provider in SA and like Telecom they are able to set the price for their services at what is deemed by consumers to be high.
In order to bring local services in line with international standards true competition is required.
South Africa do not look to be able to introduce this type of competition anytime soon but perhaps New Zealanders will be more successful with their protest.
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