Posts by Russell Brown
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More from Keall: Joyce posits a national operating organisation for UFB – suggests it could be Telecom-run.
I’m proposing a merger between Sky and Telecom, so no one else in the country really needs to be in business at all.
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Hard News: Locking in the Future, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Um why?
No really this is a serious question. If it is necessary can anyone explain why?
The best answer I can come up with at the moment is "Because Steven Joyce says so," which seems to be the reason for quite a number of things lately.
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This just in ...
Eleven Telcos, Consumer Groups Unite Against UFB Bill
In an unprecedented move, 11 of New Zealand’s major telecommunications companies and the country’s leading consumer advocate groups have united to oppose the Government’s proposed UFB Bill.
The group, including Vodafone, 2 Degrees, TelstraClear, Call Plus, Kordia/Orcon, Opto Network and Torotoro Waea as well as , Federated Farmers, Consumer New Zealand, TUANZ, and InternetNZ, have sent a joint letter to all MPs outlining their concerns with UFB initiatives in the proposed Telecommunications (TSO, Broadband, and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.
TUANZ Chief Executive, Paul Brislen, says while the group fully supports broadband infrastructure investment, the letter outlines the group’s fears that the Bill would reduce competition and investment in New Zealand’s telecommunications market.
“Chief among our concerns are the Bill’s proposals to give successful fibre company bidders a ten year ‘holiday’ from regulation, and the removal from the consumer watchdog Commerce Commission of any oversight of prices and services until 2020..
“In our view the regulatory holiday should be scrapped or at the least substantially modified, and the consumers’ champion - the Commerce Commission - should be allowed to do its job,” says Brislen.
Prices were also likely to increase by over 20% for all urban consumers whose broadband was carried over copper telephone lines.
The Bill would also allow Telecom to create a new, wholesale monopoly when it was separated into two businesses, says Brislen.
“In our view, there must be more checks and balances on how Telecom separates and the new monopoly that is created,” he says.
While consumer groups and the broader industry agree the Bill needed to be improved, papers obtained under the Official Information Act reveal the Commerce Commission also agrees advising that ‘substantial risks to competition’ exist.
Statements by Communications and Information Technology Minister, Steven Joyce, that no monopoly will be created, that a ‘regulatory holiday’ is necessary, and contracts between Crown Fibre Holdings and successful fibre company bidders will protect consumers are not reassuring.
There is nothing in the legislation to prevent fibre companies from increasing prices and degrading services, and regulatory holidays are banned in the European Union and by the WTO, Brislen says.
“If there is no issue, why deliberately legislate to prevent the Commerce Commission from doing its job?”, he asks.
ENDS –
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Very useful NBR story here.
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Hard News: Locking in the Future, in reply to Juha Saarinen,
The way CFH has designed the UFB, I also expect retail providers to get a slice of the action for other services than just broadband, such as IPTV for instance.
Which speaks to the content issue I mentioned in the post.
In Britain, Virgin can sell you a cable TV bouquet that includes individual BSkyB channels. Here, unless there is regulation, it will be impossible to unbundle wholesale channels from Sky -- and Sky will continue to offer contracts that stipulate that any wholesale customer must purchase all content from Sky, if Sky can make it available.
Iz not grate.
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Hard News: Locking in the Future, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
It’s not clear how many customers are going to be convinced to pay the extra. For one thing, there isn’t that much content out there – production of such content is pretty marginal commercially, hence the failure of several such services recently. (Alt TV, etc).
Which is where that Commerce Commission study will be very interesting. It's entirely possible that that we could end up with a single company enjoying a dominant grip on most of the satellite infrastructure, the biggest single chunk of UHF spectrum to be freed up after digital switchover -- and all the best content. Not an optimum result.
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Hard News: Locking in the Future, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
An ideal solution would be for wealthy corporations to build the network, be bankrupted in the process, and have it acquired from the receiver for a song, allowing the service to be sold cheaply (effectively, subsidising it with the money of mug investors). This worked well with the US fibre bubble.
And Canada. It has been my favoured option for some time.
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NBR's Chris Keall had trouble logging in here (he used to be so good with computers!) but has expressed to me the view that the CFH price book is "meaningless because it doesn't allow for data caps, or international data."
Which is odd, but presumably those are deemed matters for retailers. Who don't appear to have any room to move on them.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Russell:
Just to add a name to your list of Kiwi "public intellectuals", I'd respectfully submit the name Roy Parsons -- though I'm not sure if you'd count trade. :)
Absolutely. Gordon Tait was another bookseller to offer leadership in ideas. I remember Tait's name from my childhood, so he obviously had an impact.
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Hard News: Fridays are still for the music, in reply to Bruce Wurr,
.on the same old school tip though, off to Tackhead tomorrow night, a rare appearance but man those guys can play! Keith LeBlanc, one of the greatest drummers around.
Wow. Enjoy!
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Peter Darlington,
Surprisingly the main Usenet group for UK football was a home for surreal geniuses whereas the main rugby group turned into a completely dull cesspit.
Indeed. That happened about the time of the 1995 RWC. A group uf us departed and set up our own little list, which continues to this day.