Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and Orcon are launching a campaign to get rid of broadband data caps.
Mr Dotcom is the poster boy for Orcon's new tongue-in-cheek television advert promoting the company's unlimited internet and describes New Zealand's internet as "third world".
Orcon chief executive Greg McAlister and Kim Dotcom. Photo: RNZ
Orcon has recently tripled the capacity of its broadband product and is offering unlimited data for $99 a month.
Its biggest rival, Telecom, does not currently offer unlimited internet, although other smaller providers do.
Telecom owns 50% of the Southern Cross Cable, which is the only major internet cable linking New Zealand to the rest of the world.
Speaking in Auckland on Thursday, Mr Dotcom said that monopoly is keeping caps on data, and prices 40 times higher than in Europe.
"The trap is that the bandwidth prices are so high that you cannot attract international big data businesses to come to New Zealand and that's why New Zealanders have to carry the burden to basically pay for the profit of these telecom companies," he said.
Mr Dotcom said improving the country's internet is a major policy of the new political party he is creating to run in the general election next year.
Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Paul Brislen says the Southern Cross Cable is the only monopoly in the country that's not regulated, and it's damaging the economy.
