No love lost between battling NZ telcos

Telecom has announced a new schedule of pricing for residential phone connections in Christchurch, where Telstra Saturn is expanding its service, and in Wellington where it has offered phone services for some time.

Under the new pricing Telecom has dropped its residential connections in Christchurch and Wellington by around $7 a month.

The move is proof that although Telecom is embroiled in a bigger fight across the Tasman for the spoils of Australia's mobile market, it isn't going to stand by and watch new kid Telstra Saturn grab a slice of its bread-and-butter residential income back home.

Telstra Saturn indirectly wounded Telecom this week by digging deep to win coverage of the All Black tests against Argentina, Scotland and Ireland later in the year.

Fellow pay-TV operator Sky Television (NZSE: SKY) pulled out of the running for the overseas games when the bidding got too rich.

Telecom indirectly has a stake in Sky through its 10% investment in Independent Newspapers (NZSE: INL). INL owns around 50% of Sky.

Telecom and Sky have also been working together offering packages of digital TV, residential line, mobile phone and internet services.

Telstra Saturn, which is half-owned by Aussie telco Telstra (NZSE: TLS) and Austar United, is indicating it is keen to tackle Sky's sports domination head on, and has also acquired the rights to the Six Nations Rugby Championships and the European Rugby Cup for 2001 and 2002.

In a hint at what kind of further competitive ideas may be up Telstra Saturn's sleeve it's worthwhile noting that Telstra in Australia is planning to introduce a discount to customers who receive and pay their bills over the internet.

By paying and billing online Telstra is hoping to save millions in administration costs.

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