Telecom New Zealand been fined NZD 500,000 for breaching the Fair Trading Act by a court in Auckland. The company has pleaded guilty to seventeen charges of breaching the Fair Trading Act over claims made in 2006 when promoting Xtra's Go Large broadband plan. From August to November 2006 Telecom and Xtra undertook an extensive nationwide advertising campaign to promote the Go Large broadband plan and made a number of representations, including "Xtra Broadband is about to be unleashed!", "unlimited data usage and all the internet you can handle" and "maximum speed internet". In December 2006 the Commerce Commission launched an investigation following complaints from Xtra customers who found that the internet speed was constrained, in some cases to dial-up speed. Some customers also found that they experienced slower speeds on their new Go Large plan than on their previous plans. Telecom cooperated with the Commission's investigation and has voluntarily paid around AUD 8.4 million in compensation to approximately 97,000 affected customers. Telecom will pay a further NZD 44,000 in reparation to 1,700 eligible Go Large customers. Telecom stopped offering the Go Large plan to new customers in February 2007.
