What is the difference between 11.30 am and 11.30pm as far as a computerised digital telephone exchange is concerned?

Nothing, nil, zero, nada!

Traffic on the NZ network is well within the carrying capability of the network equipment, 24 hours a day. There is no need to differentiate based on time of day or day of week. It costs the Telco the same whether you call at midday or midnight, Monday or Sunday.

So why would anyone charge you more for calls made at different times? Profit!

Some may argue that it cost more to set up for carrying the peak loads of a busy business day, but think about it. Dial up internet traffic has been filling the space for years and the network and exchanges have coped just fine. With Broadband on the rise, there is spare capacity!

Between 3pm and 5pm the networks have a massive amount of dial up internet traffic from residential markets (when the school kids get home) whilst the business markets are still busy making lots of business calls. Does the network fail every day at 3pm? No.

The investment in up-scaled exchange equipment was all paid off years ago, before the somewhat low level of competition we have now caused prices to drop to where they are now. The American investors who bought the network have taken billions of dollars of profit out of New Zealand since then.

The major player in the NZ market still owns the copper loop and is happily playing the economy with it. Their profit levels announced in the news every year make the point pretty clearly.

Peak and off peak rates are a myth, a ruse to extract more whilst fooling the public into thinking they are getting a saving by waiting until some artificial time barrier is removed.

Well it is removed now. Communitel rates are the same day and night, weekdays and weekends, Low !

That makes "Off Peak" 24x365