- Xtra (ISP)
Infobox_Company
company_name = Xtra Limited
company_
type =Subsidiary
foundation = 1996Incorporated 14th June 2001
location = Level 8North Tower Telecom House68 - 86 Jervois QuayWellington
key_people = Simon Moutter, DirectorMark Verbiest, Director
products = Internet Service Provider
homepage = [http://www.telecom.co.nz/ www.telecom.co.nz]
industry =Telecommunications Xtra Limited (trading as Xtra), is New Zealand's largest
Internet service provider , a wholly owned subsidiary ofTelecom New Zealand . Xtra offers various internet services including ADSL and dial-up connections withinNew Zealand and has been doing so since its inception in the mid 1990s.The name Xtra is also used with the separate entity
Yahoo!Xtra , ajoint venture web portal between Telecom (49% stake) andYahoo!7 (51% stake). The venture was formed in December 2006 replacing theXtraMSN web portal and includes additional features for Xtra broadband customers. [cite web|url=http://annualreport07.telecom.co.nz/download/telecom-annual-report-2007.pdf|title=Annual Report 2007|publisher=Telecom New Zealand|accessdate=2008-09-11]In 2008 Telecom dropped the Xtra brand name from products and services, using Telecom instead (Xtra broadband became Telecom broadband for example). [cite web|url=http://www.xtra.co.nz/help/0,,5729,00.html|title=What Happened To Xtra Broadband?|publisher=Xtra Limited|accessdate=2008-09-11]
Background
From the time of Xtra's inception, Xtra has been providing dial-up internet throughout New Zealand. In 1999 Telecom created New Zealand's only
ADSL service. Telecom later allowed other ISP's to access its ADSL networks (under increasing government and public pressure). Today, it is widely accepted that Telecom has provided and still is providing unfair and monopolistic terms of trade regarding its wholesale ADSL services. [cite web|url=http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/883263|title=Xtra accused of muffling internet voice|date=8 November 2006|publisher=TVNZ|accessdate=2008-09-11]Xtra's "Go Large" plan was introduced as New Zealand's first completely unlimited ADSL service in 2006, however there has been much public criticism and disappointment at the instability and general slowness of the newly introduced plan. [cite web|url=http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/882794|title=Slow broadband frustrates customers|date=7 November 2006 |publisher=TVNZ|accessdate=2008-09-11] The Go Large Plan was advertised with unlimited data usage and maximum speed. What was not clearly stated on advertisements, however, was that there was a fair use policy and traffic management that restricted users to a download limit between 4pm and 12am. If one were to continually exceed this limit, they would be placed in a "download pool", or contacted with offers to switch to another plan. [cite web|url=http://www.telecom.co.nz/tools/1,8752,205450-204363,00.html|title=Traffic Management on the GO LARGE plan|publisher=Telecom New Zealand|accessdate=2008-09-11] [cite web|url=http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/901232|title=Telecom's internet arm in trouble|date=25 November 2006 |publisher=TVNZ|accessdate=2008-09-11]
The largest ISP
As a subdivision of Telecom New Zealand, Xtra has retained some
monopoly of its parent company. To many people, this monopoly is widely regarded as an unfair advantage over other ISPs. Many lobbyists, including Slingshot's CEO Annette Presley have persuaded New Zealand's Communications Ministry to force the unbundling of Telecom's local loop, so as to fairer trading terms and lessen Xtra's ISP monopoly. The LLU (Local loop unbundling ) has not yet been completed, however some initial tests have been completed. Unbundled access is expected to arrive about mid 2008.ORBS
During 2001 Xtra and Actrix (New Zealand Internet Service Providers) won a High Court injunction to get themselves off the
Open Relay Behavior-modification System (ORBS) anti-spam blacklist operated by Alan Brown. ORBS had been a blacklist of IP addresses relating toopen mail relay s, which can be abused by spammers to send unsolicited bulk e-mail. Hundreds of organisations subscribed to the list, including Bigfoot.com and at least one other large free mail provider. They rejected e-mail from any IP address listed in ORBS.The court action led (indirectly) to the end of one of the oldest
DNSBL services. [cite web|url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/05/orbs_death_alan_brown_replies/|title=ORBS' death: Alan Brown replies|last=McCarthy|first=Kieren|date=5 June 2001|publisher=The Register|accessdate=2008-09-11] [cite web|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=55&objectid=191406|title=Court forces ORBS to remove Xtra e-mail from blacklist|last=Foreman|first=Michael|date=29 May 2001|publisher=New Zealand Herald|accessdate=2008-09-11]Xtra Go Large Plan
A 'unlimited', unrestricted internet plan was released in January 2007. This plan turned out to be a
hoax as you could only download up to 700mb in an hour during peak times. This triggered a lot of media attention and an investigation was launched. Now, the plan has been abandoned (unless you are a customer who has chosen to keep it) and aTraffic Management Policy has been enforced.Xtra Broadband Refund
As of 22 February 2007, Telecom has decided to refund all of its Go Large customers (approximately 60,000) starting from $130 per customer. This has been caused by the overwhelming complaints and criticisms Telecom Xtra has received due to their lack of action, over hyped promises and under-delivering of the Go Large plan. Customers who have been on the Go Large plan since 8 December 2006 until present, are entitled to $130-$160 credit refund. The refund may cost Telecom Xtra up to 7.5 - 8.5 million NZ dollars.
The credit refund is to be processed in customers' bills in March and April.
Some have speculated Xtra refunds their customers using bill credit rather than cash as a measure to prevent customers from switching to other ISPs, if the customers intended to use the money for that purpose.
Also, in addition to refunding customers, Telecom Xtra may also have to refund other smaller NZ ISPs as a result of manipulation and overpricing of wholesale prices set by Telecom for other ISPs to purchase. This refund may set Telecom Xtra back by a further 800,000 NZ dollars. This proposal is being considered by the Commerce Commission of New Zealand.
Xtra web portals
XtraMSN was one of the trading names of Telecom New Zealand's ISP Xtra, and was used as the branding for its default home page for customers. The present name came from a deal between Xtra andMSN , a merger of Xtra's homepage [http://www.xtra.co.nz/ xtra.co.nz] with Microsoft New Zealand's [http://www.msn.co.nz/ msn.co.nz] .Several other MSN services besides the portal were cobranded with Xtra in the XtraMSN brand (e.g.
Hotmail ). Several versions of capitalising XtraMSN have been used by Telecom and Microsoft New Zealand in their promotional literature.In 2007 Xtra changed to Yahoo in
Microsoft 's place. [cite web|url=http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/929734|title=Telecom joins forces with Yahoo|date=13 December 2006 |publisher=TVNZ|accessdate=2008-09-11] Their main portal is now [http://yahooxtra.co.nz yahooxtra.co.nz] . During the change over Telecom experienced much backlash over a change in email set up. Part of the agreement between Yahoo and Xtra provided that Xtras email addresses be moved over to Yahoo servers in Australia. This required settings changes in order for customers to access their YahooXtra "Bubble" email accounts. This required uses to change basic settings such as mail server, but also more advanced settings such as port numbers and authentication.Yahoo!Xtra Bubble - Antispam Troubles
The move to Yahoo!Xtra Bubble has caused trouble for many small business owners and website hosting companies in New Zealand. Yahoo's aggressive antispam policies have caused business owners to lose bookings and have caused major delays for some customers in receiving emails.
The Dominion Post brought the problem to the fore with an article printed on the 26 November 2006, "Buck Passed as Mail Binned". [cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4288518a28.html|title=Buck passed as mail binned|last=Pullar-Strecker|first=Tom|date=26 November 2007|publisher=The Dominion Post|accessdate=2008-09-11] The responsibility for the trouble has been shunned by Xtra who seem unable to make any changes to Yahoo's antispam filtering system. Xtra have pushed the blame back to the hosting companies, "Telecom spokesman Nick Brown denies there are technical problems with the service, and blames web-hosting companies for forwarding mail without filtering it first for spam." The trouble with their denial is that Xtra/Yahoo's email system also forwards spam in the same manner.Reports of Xtra's email troubles are appearing on various blogs, forums and newsletters as people realise that emails are not arriving. New Zealand Tourism Online's October newsletter reported that they, "found several clients who have not been getting accommodation enquiry or booking emails due to the filter system.". [cite web|url=http://www.tourism.net.nz/business-centre/newsletters/2007-10.html#filter|title=October 2007 Newsletter - SPAM Filters|publisher=New Zealand Tourism Online|accessdate=2008-09-11]
One of Xtra's solutions to the problem has been telling their users to add the sender of the email to their contacts list. This has caused the email be redirected to the inbox, but hasn't fixed the delays which are being caused by Yahoo's
greylisting practice.Up until December 2007 Yahoo have denied that they use greylisting practices, [cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20071022091302/http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/original/abuse/abuse-61.html|title=Does Yahoo! use "greylisting" to reject messages?|publisher=Yahoo!|accessdate=2008-09-11] but the removal of the denial from their site, and the fact that their practices are in line with what greylisting actually is, seem to show otherwise. The immediate deferral of email by Yahoo's email servers can cause delays of many hours. [cite web|url=http://luciddesign.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/xtra-and-yahoo-causing-major-problems-with-email-in-new-zealand/|title=Xtra and Yahoo causing major problems with email in New Zealand|date=24 October 2007|publisher=Lucid Design blog|accessdate=2008-09-11] This is a problem that Xtra have inherited by joining with Yahoo. [cite web|url=http://www.ahfx.net/weblog.php?article=107|title=Yahoo Mail Servers Rejecting Email|date=23 October 2006|publisher=Website Design Blog|accessdate=2008-09-11]
External links
* [http://www.telecom.co.nz/ Telecom New Zealand]
* [http://www.yahooxtra.co.nz/ Yahoo!Xtra]References
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