When they want to create something that looks like a grass roots campaign, but isn’t, big companies often turn to a strategy known as astroturfing. The Drop the Rate campaign that began yesterday with support from Consumer, Tuanz and 2degrees is a classic example.

At first sight it’s aims are laudable. Lord knows New Zealanders pay way over the odds for mobile phone services. Ostensibly the campaign aims to put pressure on Vodafone and Telecom to cut the mobile termination rate or MTR. This is the amount one phone company has to pay another when customers call between networks.

There’s no question New Zealand’s MTRs are high by international standards. That’s only part of the reason why mobile phones are far more expensive to run here than in Australia – or just about anywhere else. It’s also a major brake on the economy – calls that could be made, possibly should be made, are going unmade because of the high costs involved.

Yet despite it being worthy in principle, there’s something phony (or should that be phoney?) about the Drop the Rate campaign.

For a start, there’s an expensive PR company behind it.

Who is paying Matthew Hooton’s fee? Good on him for getting the job, but you can bet your bottom dollar Exceltium isn’t collecting money from cake stands and sausage sizzles for this work.

Second, 2degrees doesn’t want to talk about the MTRs it pays to Vodafone and Telecom and has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure grass roots, that’s real grass, not astroturf, New Zealanders don’t get to know the rate.

Of course no-one can blame 2degrees for taking part in this kind of stunt. Telecom and Vodafone play hardball. And both can be less than snow-white in their marketing and political lobbying.

Campaign gets wide media coverage

Hooton certainly proved his PR skills. The Kiwi specialist press was full of the story. At The National Business Review Chris Keall expressed some weariness about the campaign in 2degrees again a little sneaky on MTRs at the National Business Review. The story got a good run in the New Zealand Herald and the Dominion Post.

At Computerworld Rob O’Neill seems more willing to take the campaign at face value. His Drop the rate mate’ campaign targets MTRs offers no comment. Paul Clearwater at The Line reports that Vodafone disputes the information on the campaign’s web site in ‘Drop the rate mate’ campaign begins. Telecommunications Review has a couple of stories on the campaign. The un-bylined Public campaign to lower Mobile Termination Rates is little more than an announcement while Sarah Putt’s “Rates are already falling mate” – Telecom gives the main telecommunication carrier’s dismissive response.

Update: Computerworld reports on Hooton’s attack on Telecom and Vodafone in Mobile termination row goes nuclear. The story finishes;

Hooton has words for Telecom, too, as the MTR debate goes white hot.
“Telecom now seems to be saying that it needs to rip off mobile consumers in order to fund more investment in the industry,” he said. “Good luck to Telecom arguing that a cosy duopoly leads to more investment in services and coverage than a more competitive environment.”

My opinion: Hooton proves he is a worthy campaigner against the arrogance of Telecom and Vodafone – clearly he was the right man for the campaign. Despite this, I’m still not comfortable with the astroturfing.

According to the Press Freedom Index, New Zealand has less restrictions on its media than the US, the UK and even Australia. It is ranked equal 19th alongside Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Yet you wouldn’t think so today if you wanted to know what was going on with the new cellular phone operator 2degrees. My erstwhile esteemed colleague Chris Keall has been following the company closely for The National Business Review. On Wednesday Keall posted Revealed: Vodafone’s secret deal with 2degrees, which exposed the pricing deal between the two companies. Following an order from the Commerce Commission, the NBR gutted the story leaving just a stub.

It turns out the Commerce Commission has the power to do this under the terms of the Commerce Act. And that’s what makes a mockery of press freedom. If the secret information was, say, a matter of state security, or perhaps had the power to ruin the lives of innocent people the ruling may have made sense. But it’s neither of those things. It’s simply that 2degrees would rather not let anyone know the price it pays Vodafone. So much for transparency and the open society.

And to add insult to injury, publishing banned information is a criminal offence in New Zealand.

Anyway, it appears the top secret information has been published online internationally. That’ll put the cat among the pigeons.

New Zealand’s The National Business Review newspaper is erecting a paywall, reserving roughly 20 percent of its online material for paying guests only. I’ve nothing in principle against charging for online content. In fact, I’ve a vested interest in the scheme succeeding.

My objection is practical.

First, I simply don’t believe enough customers will pay enough money to make online charging a viable proposition for all but a handful of specialist publications. The NBR is good, but it’s content isn’t unique or special enough to get away with charging.

Second, hiding the 20 percent of the best content behind a paywall, means cutting off considerably more than 20 percent of the paper’s potential traffic from advertisers.

Third, the NBR’s price is just plain wrong. The paper wants to charge $89 as a special offer and a normal rate of $149 for access to 20 percent of its content for six months. This compares with $228 (including GST) for a six month subscription to the print edition. For that money, the NBR will chop up and munch trees, squirt ink, and post the finished product to your letter box once a week. You’ll get to see 100 percent of the printed material for as long as you wish.

On that basis, the fair price for a six month subscription to 20 percent of the content would be under $50, less postage, less printing costs, less paper. What woudl that figure be? That’s right. Around zero dollars.

So unless the online deal offers additional material or something else special, it’s hardly attractive.

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Ex-pat kiwis looking to return home may need to rethink their plans with unemployment set to rise sharply. The latest Hudson Report, Hiring Expectations says New Zealand’s employers don’t expect to be taking on many new workers in the coming months and many expect to cut staff numbers.

Under the headline ‘Employer hiring expectations tumble’, Niko Kloeten at The National Business Review writes; “Unemployment looks set to jump – a new survey shows 24% of New Zealand employers are looking to shed permanent staff in the next three months.” The NBR says the figures are the worst since the first Hudson Report was published in 1999.

Things are particularly bad in the IT sector. IT Brief (a trade publication) reports; “The sector has entered into a cautious phase as businesses around New Zealand continue to downsize, recruitment specialist Hudson says.” The company’s recent report showed the IT industry had experience a 28.4 percent decline.

In ‘Employers’ hiring expectations plummet’ The New Zealand Herald quotes Hudson executive general manager Marc Burrage saying; “”With cost and demand pressures on businesses mounting, some employers have had to rapidly reassess their workforce strategies. We are seeing some employers talking to their employees about reductions in salary levels or offering flexible working practices, such as job sharing, to help retain the talent they’ve worked so hard to develop.”