Many thanks to Michael Daley and Matt Thistlethwaite for meeting with EC members at short notice at such a busy time of year.
EC members met with Michael Daley on 2 December. At the meeting, Michael expressed his surprise at Prince Henry having a sole provider for telecoms and that the sole provider was removing its email service and dragging the chain on infrastructure upgrades. He undertook to help with the Pivit issue and with other ongoing CA issues, the latter being less urgent and something to look forward to in 2016!
On 7 December, EC members met with Matt Thistlethwaite. He too was surprised at Prince Henry’s sole provider and no email predicament. He said he’d write to Pivit and also to the Telecoms Industry Ombudsman if necessary, as well as speak with his Federal Government colleagues.
On 22 December, EC members met again with Matt Thistlethwaite, who advised that he’d written to Pivit seeking a meeting to discuss issues raised by the residents of Prince Henry. During a telephone meeting, Pivit had advised among other things that:
- the Foxtel infrastructure upgrade had been completed and consequently there should be no longer be pixelation on Foxtel’s HD channels (it’s interesting to note that the CA has received no formal notification from Pivit of this upgrade)
- it would not consider resuming an email service ¹
- it was trying to negotiate an amended contract with Urban Growth (formerly Landcom) ²
- The five services included in the original contract between Pivit and Landcom were: Free-to-air TV, Pay-TV, Internet, Email and telephone
- The EC has submitted an application under the GIPA Act to acquire a copy of the original contract between Landcom and Pivit. It is expecting to receive a determination on 15 January 2016.
