On 03/05/06, Ian Batterbee <ian.batterbee@aut.ac.nz> wrote:
> But anyway... it seems that govt has finally decided to do something
> about our favourite monopoly.

Can they do something about the pay tv monopoly next :-)

> My view is that rural customers won't benefit much, and may even loose
> ground as the large ISP's clamber over each other trying to get
> equipment into telecom's exchanges. The small ISPs will continue to
> resell wholesale plans (but they'll have a choice of more than one
> wholesale provider), and city folks will do quite nicely out of this.

Other toll providers (including telstra, slingshot, ihug, orcon and
vodafone) pay Telecom tens of millions per year for the so called
"unprofitable" customers. While LLU isn't likely to get rural
customers broadband any sooner, its not going to hurt them either.

> I was a little confused by ihug's advertising throughout Campbell Live
> which stated that all of their plans are "full rate" and "80 times
> faster than dialup", which I thought was a bit premature.

What that meant was all the plans they sell are 3.5Mbps (i.e. they
don't sell 256kb/s or 2Mb/s plans). "Full rate" only implies the
fastest rate currently available.

> I think that it may have been wiser to split telecom's lines and retail
> divisions up, but Cunliffe said that is still a possibility, depending
> on how things work out.

Entirely possible. British Telecom did a structural separation when
threatened with LLU.

> What does everyone else think of this ?

Can only be a good thing for everyone that doesn't own Telecom shares.
Living in a provincial city, I know it will be years and years before
I see any benefit from this. Got to look after those Auckland folk
first.

"Watch this space"

  -- simon

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