As you may well know, New Zealand is in a remote location, secluded from any major neighbors by a few thousand kilometers.
An estimated 4,331,600 people living in a space of 268,680 km2 (103,738 sq mi).
These figures show that we are a small yet developed nation and we take pride in who we are. Except the lack of technology available in New Zealand.
Here there is a telecommunications company called Telecom, who owns nearly all of lines of connection from here to anywhere.
Because they own most of it, they can control the prices and the ancient systems the whole nation runs on.
A first hand example is me.
I pay 39.95$ (29.89$ US) for 1GB of DSL broadband. The speed is about 6kbps when I go over the date usage (as it says in my signature below) and the fastest I've ever gotten it is 200-240 kbps.
As you can see, I and many others are getting ripped off, even though we are pretty up there in the world.
Telecom is milking us.
An interesting thing about Telecom is they can get away with all these shitty prices and shitty service.
So you ask " Why don't we change our system to something thats better?"
Well simply putting it, Telecom buys out all of the company's who try to make NZ telecommunications better and more affordable. Since they have all our cash stored away in a safe.
Another first hand experience of this is, yet again, me.
About 4 years ago, a company called Saturn created these green boxes outside every house in Christchurch (3rd biggest town in NZ) also where I live.
Even though back then I didn't know much about the "milking of NZ" but I would of been excited if I did.
Yet again, Telecom comes over and buys the whole fucking company out and leaves NZ in the dark about it.
Of course the selfish bastards leave the boxes there and don't finish the job.
Telecom's bullying has caused an upsurge with us NZers, and the company was taken to court about the bullying.
Below is a link describing what happened in the court.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/sh...itive.html
Maybe someday this selfish company would revise and take action about the issues, such as finishing the jobs of the green boxes, But by then the system would be at least 10 years old.
Or...
NZers will call such a uproar that Telecom would have to take action, By packing up their heavy sacks of money and walking out of NZ with a big profit and head over seas. (Perhaps Tahiti?)
Edit: Would you kind people perhaps share the prices, speeds and information about the telecommunication networks in America?