The Save Our Landlines campaign is asking for people to take action TODAY against the Telecommunications (New Regulatory Framework) Bill which has passed its second reading.
Save Our Landlines NZs website is www.saveourlandlines.nz and the campaign’s position is that the bill should be withdrawn and redrafted so that it PROTECTS New Zealanders’ access to the copper phone line network.
Supporters of the campaign have been asked to take the following actions in a last ditch attempt to save the copper landline network in NZ towns and cities.
Here’s what supporters have been asked to do:
Go to the following Facebook pages and leave polite messages asking for the bill to be withdrawn for the following reasons:
1) The copper landline phone network allows people to have a safe corded phone and hardwired internet access.
2) Corded copper landline phones will usually work when a house has lost power so are important in emergencies.
3) Removal of copper was opposed by the vast majority of NZers who made submissions on the bill, largely for health and safety reasons. (See: http://www.saveourlandlines.nz/news/quotes-from-submissions-on-telecommunications-bill; It is undemocratic that public concerns were essentially ignored.
4) Keeping the copper supports consumer choice and frees up the fibre bandwidth for people and business that actually need really fast internet.
5) Spark wants to move low data internet customers to fixed wireless broadband and deny them access to fibre – see https://www.computerworld.co.nz/article/609604/spark-abandon-copper-fibre-wireless-broadband/. This would essentially deprive many people of the ability to have a safe hardwired internet connection.
It would also lead to further proliferation of cellular phone towers and potentially increased health risks including increased risk of cancer https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21741680 ) for people living close to this infrastructure.
Here are the FB pages:
https://www.facebook.com/jacindaardern/
https://www.facebook.com/winstonpeters/
https://www.facebook.com/JamesShawMP/
https://www.facebook.com/maramadavidsonmp/
https://www.facebook.com/simonjbridges/
Thank you for your support on this issue.
NB: If you have time, please make multiple postings of individual points on the Facebook pages to increase the visibility of this topic.
