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Why the hell is that?

The answer is, in a word, "MONOPOLY".

Now Telecom aren't stupid, in fact they're very smart.

You see, right now you're probably paying about $42 per month for your dialtone - but not so long ago you could have gotten the same dialtone for a fraction that price by opting for the Homeline Economy plan -- a little known but much cheaper option to the large bill we all now get so regularly.

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Homeline Economy was about $15-$18 cheaper than the regular phoneline connection but also carried local-call charge. This meant that if you didn't make a lot of calls then it was cheaper than the regular plan.

And let's not forget that Telecom endlessly tells us how unfair it is that they have to provide a free local call option as part of their Kiwi Share obligations.

Indeed, the Kiwi Share obligation is so onerous that Telecom has been able to convince government to force competitors such as Vodafone to pay a huge amount of money to help offset their losses.

You'd think therefore, that Telecom would gladly offer a cheaper dialtone but which required people to pay for their local calling -- indeed, they were lobbying strongly that this be the norm not so long ago.

So why did they ditch the Homeline Economy plan and force us all to buy that (according to them) less profitable free-local calling service that they despise so much?

The official reason, we're told, is that customers preferred the simpler option of free local calling; to which I say "bullshite"

The *real* answer (in another word -- well acronym actually) is VOIP.

As I said before, Theresa and her thugs aren't stupid (greedy and arrogant yes, but definitely not stupid). They realise that in these days of ultra-cheap VOIP services such as Skype, dialtone is going to be one of their major revenue earners and that if they go giving it away more cheaply, a growing number of folks will opt to use DSL-based VOIP rather than pay for the dearer option of "free" local calling.

To offer a cheaper dial-tone with local-call charging (as they once die) would actually cost Telecom a huge amount of money.

For example -- if you could save $18 per month (as you once could), that's about 8 hours of local and/or international outbound calls to other people's phones using Skype. Of course if you're receiving calls or calling other Skype users direct PC to PC then those conversations are free -- so 8 hours goes a very long way!

As the public increasingly cottons on to VOIP, the shift to cheaper dialtone and using these services instead of any analog voice calling would decimate Telecom's revenues.

So here's what I reckon...

While the government is investigating our DSL prices and performance, how about the demand that, even if they're not going to unbundle the local loop (which they won't), at least unbundle the dial-tone.

Let consumers buy "naked DSL" without dialtone!

The $42 per month we'd save by ditching all dial-tone would buy us about 18 hours of local and/or international VOIP calling to other people's phones. In my case that would represent a savings of about $30 -- very worthwhile.

If you're a VOIP user, why should you be forced to buy Telecom's dial-tone just to get DSL?

If Telecom's Kiwi Share obligations for free local calling is so onerous, why don't they let is relieve them of the obligation by using VOIP?

Could it be that (yet again) Telecom has been incredibly disingenuous and lied to the public and the government?

Should Vodafone and all those other phone companies who have been forced to pay Telecom for their share of the Kiwi Share Obligation be demanding their money back if we can't get naked DSL?

Did you know that in Australia (where there's real competition in the market), you can buy dialtone from the likes of Optus for just A$25 per month and (I'm told) actually get naked DSL with no dialtone? Why must we pay so much more? (Monopoly?)

I demand answers, and so should you!

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