The Internet Service Providers Association of New Zealand, formed in late
August 1996, the initial momentum provided by the announcements of NZ
Telecom that their Xtra ISP prices were being substantially reduced.
Reductions to levels that to many independant ISPs were impossible to
compete with as the cost of purchasing similar services from Telecom was
higher to ISPs than Xtra's end user prices.
A pretty clear case of predatory pricing.
One very obvious fact is that the need for ISPANZ may never have been
necessary if the Internet Society of New Zealand (ISOCNZ) had made some
effort to be more representative of NZ ISPs.
Instead ISOCNZ has evolved into a body that has just about zero attraction
to any ISP (and certainly it is doubtful that an ISP paying the $1000/year
membership fee to ISOCNZ is seeing anything of benefit to them for that
subscription). ISOC
ISP@NZ web site
29 Aug 96
I have been watching this little saga for a few weeks now.I'm probably wrong here but I sure do get the feeling that it was Craig who contacted me (he was a user on KC before he went off to start up his own isp business) simple because the rest of the leading ISPANZ members were the same ones who took Alan Marston, Dale Spittle and myself to court in Wellington in April 95. This was the well known PlaNet network bustup and why we now have two PlaNet networks. I must admit I was surprised to hear that Craig Anderson was now involved with such a bunch of wankers but then it seems he was in fast empire-build mode as he now has Actrix and the planet.org loonies all connecting to him in Auckland via the prolink NZ network. It seems that the ISPANZ must have thought that only Craig would be capable of contacting me (remember I could be wrong here) as it must be pretty clear that there is zero communications between me and Actrix/planet.org mob.
In fact it would be honest of me to say that I seriously dislike John Vorstermanns and especially two planet.org people, Brett Shand from Dunedin's earthlight.co.nz and Gregg Sheehan of Taupo's reap.org.nz I still consider the whole court action was driven by Vorstermanns as he wanted to stop a competing ISP in Wellington. As for Shand he suckered Dale, Alan and I into an agreement that would stop court action but all the time they fully intended to go ahead. It was just a ploy to unsettle us and leave us in a unprepared state for the court. Sheehan was a real nasty bit of work. Getting free work and support from me Alan, Richard Haakma and me right up to the day the official court documents were served on us. He was even trying to get us to rush with the help to get the REAP system up and going. When he knew we had the documents he freely admitted that he fully supported the action against us but still wanted to stay friends. What an asshole, taking me to court and trying to put KC out of business on one hand then expecting me (us) to remain friendly and continue helping him on the other hand.
What annoys me most about this situation now is that I am failing to see the
big picture and I am allowing personal animosity to get in the way when the
ISPs of New Zealand really need to get together and start using our collective
$ power to fight the new evil empire - Telecom New Zealand.
The problem is that I just cannot bring myself to deal with a set of two-faced
gits even though we now have a common enemy.
So for ISPANZ all I can do is quote Al Bundy and say "No Ma'am"