- Telephone Line Quality
- Effect Of Distance From Nearest Population Centre
- Internet Access Speed
- Second Phone Lines
- Quality Of Power Supply
- Emergency Services 111
- Mobile Coverage
- Party Lines
Characteristics of Supporting Infrastructure
Telephone Line Quality
Telephone line quality is a critical issue for delivering telecommunications services. Quality can be measured in a range of ways, including the speed with which information is transmitted, the signal-to-noise ratio, reliability of being able to establish a connection, and ability to maintain a connection.
In the urban telephone system, poor quality lines are simply not accepted. The rural phone system is more difficult to maintain, with longer wire runs, and is significantly more expensive to maintain per user due to the low population density for the given infrastructure.
Respondents were asked if they experienced problems with their telephone lines. Over half (58%) of the respondents stated that they did have ongoing problems with their telephone lines (Table 9).
Table 9. Telephone line quality
| Telephone Lines Problems | Percentage (Including slow Internet access speed) |
Percentage (Excluding slow Internet access speed) |
| Yes | 58 |
54 |
| No | 42 |
46 |
Internet access speed problems can originate from a number of causes in addition to the telephone lines. However, even when Internet access speed is removed as a type of problem, 54% of respondents still reported line problems. In most instances where Internet speed is reported as a problem, other line problems are also reported.
The types of problems being reported were fairly evenly spread across reporting categories. In Table 10, the telephone line problems are characterised. (Note that the total is well in excess of 100% as many people reported more than one ongoing problem.)
Table 10. Characterisation of source of telephone line problems
Type of Problem |
Percentage Reporting This Problem |
| Line is dropped (i.e. connection is interrupted) | 20 |
| Slow access speed | 25 |
| Line noise | 24 |
| Exchange overloading | 18 |
| Electric fence interference | 22 |
| Unknown | 1 |
| Other | 12 |
A survey by Rural Women New Zealand regarding telephone issues (Rural Women New Zealand, 2000) identified a similar litany of problems. While their survey analysis methodology is unclear, the top ranking problems identified in their survey were overloaded lines, fax problems, Internet access problems, and poor cell phone coverage. By far the problem with highest ranking was overloading.
Effect Of Distance From Nearest Population Centre
The proportion of respondents reporting problems was found to generally increase with distance from the nearest town or village.
Table 11, Figure 4, and Figure 5 illustrate the relationship between distance from the nearest town and village, and the proportion of respondents reporting problems.
Table 11. Relationship between distance from town and level of problems
| Distance (kms) | % with problems (Distance from town) |
% with problems (Distance from village) |
| 0-5 | 39 |
44 |
| 5.1-10 | 51 |
57 |
| 10.1-15 | 46 |
56 |
| 15.1-20 | 52 |
58 |
| 20.1-25 | 58 |
68 |
| 25.1-30 | 49 |
69 |
| 30.1-35 | 62 |
|
| 35.1-40 | 78 |
|
| 40.1-50 | 56 |
82 |
| 50.1-60 | 54 |
|
| 60.1-80 | 61 |
|
| 80+ | 69 |
Figure 4. Relationship between distance to town and problems
Figure 5. Relationship between distance to village and problems
The proportion of respondents reporting problems clearly increases with distance from the nearest population centres, with a more clear trend being evident when distance from village is used as the proxy for distance from a telephone exchange. The proportion of locations reporting telephone line-related problems rises almost linearly from 44% for locations within 0-5km of a village, to 82% for locations over 30km from a village.
Internet Access Speed
In the days when voice calls and fax were virtually the only telecommunication requirements, a minimum data rate of 9.6kbps was quite acceptable. With the advent of Internet access via phone line, data transmission rates become critical to the Internet experience. Internet Service Providers generally consider 33kbps access to be an absolute minimum acceptable transfer rate for current Internet use.
Respondents who had connection to the Internet were asked their opinion on their access speed (Table 12).
Table 12. Opinion on speed of Internet access
| Opinion | Percentage |
| Speed is "OK" | 31 |
| Needs to be faster | 69 |
Approximately two-thirds of respondents reported that they wanted faster Internet service. However, it is not possible to determine how much of an impact the quality of telephone line played in this opinion, as apparent Internet response times are the result of the interaction of many potential bottlenecks, many of them not lines related.
Second Phone Lines
With the advent of Dial-up Internet access there is often a need to add a second phone line to accommodate extended Internet use without disrupting telephone communications. Generally, copper-wire based "local loop" telecommunications infrastructure ends at the edge of a property, and it is then the responsibility of the person wanting to use the service to pay for any extra lines to be run from the edge of the property (the demarc) to point of service within the property. In the case of rural properties, this distance can be hundreds of metres, and running additional lines can be expensive.
Telecom in their submission to the Ministerial Review (Telecom, 2000b) provide comment on the issue of new lines, stating that their own policy on service obligation goes beyond the Kiwi Share, and includes "connecting customers if the customer will pay 30% of the capital over $2000". This policy is currently under review as it still represents a significant subsidy. It seems this is a no-win situation for rural service users and Telecom, as lines into rural areas are expensive.
Of the people responding to the survey, 78% reported that they had never tried to have additional telephone lines run into their location. Of the 22% who have tried to get additional lines installed, one-third failed to achieve this (Table 13). No information was sought from respondents as to the reasons for this failure.
Table 13. Installation of additional telephone lines
| Action | Percentage |
| Successfully installed | 16 |
| Failed to achieve | 6 |
| Never Tried | 78 |
Quality Of Power Supply
While the focus of the survey is on telecommunications services and infrastructure, mains power supply does impact on these aspects. Respondents were asked if they believed that they have power supply problems, and if they did have problems, did they use a power conditioner to rectify the problems ? (Table 14). Power supply problems were experienced by over a third of respondents.
Table 14. Quality of power supply
| Power Supply Problem | Percentage |
| No problems | 51 |
| Problems exist | 37 |
| Use a power conditioner | 3 |
| Unknown | 8 |
| Not on mains power | 1 |
Emergency Services 111
Just over 14% of the survey respondents stated that they have contacted 111 Emergency Services at least once in the last two years. Of those respondents who called 111, 63% had contacted Emergency Services on more than one occasion during that period. This indicates the importance of the 111 Emergency Services to rural communities.
Of the 14% of respondents who contacted 111, almost 1 in 5 (19%) had encountered problems.
A survey by Rural Women New Zealand (Rural Women New Zealand, 2000) showed that over all respondents, 7% reported problems with 111 Emergency Services. This was higher than the 3% reported in this survey.
Table 15. Emergency Services 111 Calls
| Experience with 111 | Percentage |
| Never Used | 86 |
| Used without problem | 11 |
| Used and experienced problem | 3 |
The problems reported in this survey largely centred on difficulties associated with location and time. Around 56% of the reported problems were due to a lack of location knowledge on the part of the 111 operator, and 30% of the reported problems were related to the length of time to get a response when 111 was called. These are not strictly telecommunication problems, but relate to the centralisation of emergency response staff. Two respondents indicated difficulties in getting a phone line due to exchange overloading. The list of problems reported can be found in Appendix IV: List Of Problems Encountered With 111 Service.
Mobile Coverage
Mobile coverage statistics from mobile service providers are generally based on a 4 watt car kit system. However, the more usual handheld mobile phone has significantly different reception and transmission characteristics, and complaints about rural coverage are common. Respondents were asked to characterise the mobile phone coverage in their area (Table 16).
Table 16. Opinion on mobile phone coverage by owners
| Comment | Percentage |
| No problem with coverage | 24 |
| Problems with coverage, but not bad enough to affect ability to conduct business | 35 |
| Significant problems with coverage which affect ability to conduct business | 41 |
Mobile coverage is definitely a significant issue for the rural community. Of those owning mobile phones, only 24% report no problems, but 41% reported very significant problems. Of those who provided specific comments about coverage, 15% mentioned use of a mobile phone as a safety measure in rural areas, and how this is affected by inadequate coverage.
Comments on mobile coverage can be found listed in Appendix V: List Of Comments On Cellular Coverage.
Of those not owning a mobile phone, 45% gave poor coverage as the reason they did not own one.
Party Lines
Party lines are no longer a significant issue in New Zealand. Party lines have been reduced from 40,000 in the early 1980s to 200-228 today (Telecom, 2000a reports 228 remaining party lines; Ministry of Economic Development, 2000 reports 200 remaining party lines). While the remaining party lines are no doubt annoying in the extreme to the individuals still using them, they are no longer a policy issue in the wider sense. Note that Telecom NZ (J.Rodenburg, pers communication with I Parminter, MAF Policy) recently reported that the remaining party lines will be upgraded to individual lines in their 2000/2001 financial year. None of the survey responses analysed reported a party line.
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Sector Performance Policy
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NEW ZEALAND
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