November 06, 2013
Chorus pricing outrage
Labour leader David Cunliffe is warning against any move to overturn a Commerce Commission determination on the price of copper broadband access.
The commission’s final cost-based benchmark puts the wholesale price for unbundled bitstream access at $10.92 month.
With other charges that means the price Chorus charges retail service providers for a copper line and broadband service would drop $10 a month to $34, which is $3 lower than the price Communications Minister Amy Adams wants to set.
Industry groups including Maori spectrum claimants say any price over the benchmark is a tax on internet users and a extra a subsidy for Chorus, which is building the ultra fast broadband network.
Mr Cunliffe says the Government wants to look after its big business mates rather than ordinary New Zealanders.
"The suggestion they would do a special deal for this big phone company Chorus who has been overcharging households to the tune of $100 a year each and now the government wants to bail them out when the regulators said they had to bring their prices down I mean that's just another outrage on top of a whole lot of them and people should be able to see by now that Mr Key and his mates are not governing in the interests of everyday households, Maori or Pakeha," Mr Cunliffe says.
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