‘Metphone’ users get grace period

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 23

‘Metphone’ users get grace period

Users of the Meteorological Service’s “Metphone” forecasts still have a few months grace before paying for the service. Charging for the service was expected from July 1, but has been deferred after delays in the introduction of Telecom’s planned new "0900” service. The "0900” service will allow the Meteorological Service and others to provide information by telephone for a fee, charged to the customer in the monthly telephone account. Telecom has confirmed that its introduction was a few months away. The head of the weather service, Dr Malcolm Grant, said the timing of the change was now entirely up to Telecom, and the price had not been decided. The Metphone service is available in the four main centres, Nelson and New Plymouth, and together logs about five

million calls a year. Eventually the pay service will be extended to cover most provincial centres. Dr Grant said the Meteorological Service had just finished its internal policy debate on what should and should not be charged for. At one end of the scale, the service would provide free forecasts, weather information and storm warnings as a matter of public safety. At the other end were commercial users such as airlines, which were already charged for weather information, he said. “Where the division lies is not clear,” he said. It had been decided, however, not to charge for private pilots’ weather information, which dealt with low level conditions and so was of little use to commercial operations. Nor would marine forecasts be charged for, as most users were non-com-mercial.