It seems that last week's column about Telecom's broadband service struck a chord around the area.
It does appear that I had one thing wrong, however. If you are one of the many people in the Tauranga area who – despite being in the fifth-largest city in New Zealand and having, in Telecom, a 'world-class” broadband supplier – cannot receive even the most rudimentary broadband, it seems that our spiffy new MP Simon Bridges probably isn't the man to contact.

I know this because I had a very nice letter from Nigel Gregory (see the letters page), who works for BOP MP Tony Ryall, pointing out that if I was having such problems I was probably not in the central Tauranga electorate but that of Mr Ryall. And he was right. A nice orange-hued envelope arrived to alert me that the Watusi Country Club is indeed in a different electorate than our old retreat in the suburbs.
But the problem is more widespread than I realised. Not only is broadband unavailable for a pile of people living out towards the Kaimais, and another pile of people on the way to Katikati, but in suburban Welcome Bay – which even Telecom would struggle to describe as 'extreme rural” – they seem to have their own set of problems.
Louise, whose surname I'll keep private in case there should be repercussions, had the bizarre experience of signing up for Telecom broadband last October – after confirming that she could receive it – only to be told the following:
'Unfortunately there is a current delay with connecting your Broadband service due to the equipment in your local street side telephone cabinet being at full capacity. There are development projects underway with our network team that will provide the capability required to extend your street side cabinets' current broadband limit. At this stage we're not able to provide you with a date of when this work will be completed and it is possible there could be delays of six months or more due to the complexity of the work required.”
Six months? Well, you're probably thinking that doesn't sound too bad. But having actually signed up and been told she could have broadband, it was a bit disappointing. Telecom explained it this way:
'This is actually beyond our control as all other service providers now have access to our phone exchanges due to government's intervention to ‘unbundle local loop' and to ‘separate' Telecom in 2006. It is now impossible for us to know if there's any spare broadband equipment until we actually try to connect a customer. Rest assured that we would have told you had we known that there's a shortage of broadband equipment in the phone exchange you are connected to.”
Are they serious? Is this really saying that they promise broadband and sign up customers without any way to tell whether they can actually connect them? Perhaps there is a different interpretation you can put on that, but I'm damned if I can work out what it is.
I'd like to say that things worked out well for Louise. That doesn't, unfortunately, appear to be the case. She wrote to her MP who was, as is mine now, Tony Ryall. His office got in touch with Telecom. The reply was not what anyone trying to conduct 21st century life in – as I keep mentioning – New Zealand's Fifth-Largest City would have hoped for. It said:
'The cabinet that services your area cannot have any more lines added to it. Therefore the entire cabinet has to be replaced, if there are to be more Broadband lines available. This is part of the current four year plan and should be completed by July 2011.
That's the power of an MP. Telecom ‘fessed up. The cabinet whose capacity they were going to 'extend” in fact can't be extended and it won't happen in six months, it'll be a couple of years. Terrific.
I don't know about you, but I don't think this is really good enough. If you have similar problems, direct them to Tony Ryall. He will do what he can. And drop us a line here telling us of your woes. Perhaps if enough people complain we can embarrass Telecom into getting their act together in the Bay.