Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Telecom NZ to rename itself SPARK


This was announced by the company's top boss last Friday, although not the exact date when it will occur.  It's almost an acknowledgement of its extremely bad behaviour since it was split from the Post Office in 1987 and then sold by the Government.  But people aren't so easily fooled: "same thing with a different name" - simply more of the same autocratic attitudes and fleecing customers for as much as it can get away with to pay to its bosses and shareholders while delivering as little as it can get away with.  As a TV commentator pointed out, spelt backwards it reads KRAPS. At least in mobile it no longer has the lion's share of the market and only ranks as number two - its constant attempts to stifle the competition didn't succeed. And the Government eventually saw the need to dismember the Goliath into separate entities in 2011 just as the Reagan administration in the U.S. saw the need to split up AT&T in 1984.

2 comments:

MalcolmT said...

Wonder which bright spark came up with that name ..........

transpress nz said...

new Telecom Boss to its Public Relations Agency: "Look we've taken a lot of flak over over fraudulent advertising and technical failures over the years - what can we do?"
Public Relations Agency: "Why not change your name?"
Boss: "Uh, um, OK, come up with something."
Several months later: Pub Rel agency: "Hey, I was sharpening my chisel on the grindstone last night, and it was making sparks - wadda ya think?"
Telecom Boss: "What, Grindstone?"
Pub Rel agency: "No, spark! You know in the Bruce Springstein song, 'you can't start a fire without a spark'?"
Telecom Boss: "Fire, destruction?...um, er, maybe, what will it cost us?"
Pub Rel agency: "Only about $20 million"
Telecom Boss: "Less than the bonuses we pay our execs each year - OK do it. By the way, if it doesn't work we're getting a new Public Relations agency."