someone said:

Ok, so Telecom can still impose funny volume limits... I guess the whole
unbundling thingy is not really taking off then? The decision was made almost
half a year ago, so ISPs have had some time to put their own equipment into
the roadside racks? Or is the price for international bandwidth still
dominating the cost, even if ISPs put in their own equipment?

Not quite, no....

the decision was made six months ago, but of course it takes a while to
percolate through.

The process:

1: Govt announces unbundling
2: Govt introduces Telco Amendment Bill
3: Bill goes to first hearing in parliament
4: Bill goes to select committee (YOU ARE HERE)
5: Bill goes back to parliament for a couple of readings/tweakings if
appropriate
6: Bill becomes Act.
7: Unbundling commences.

We are about half way through the process and there's still a way to go
before anyone is allowed in to Telecom's network to install kit. Of
course, Telecom could open up its doors now and say "we see the light,
come in friend, come in on and all. We shall charge but a penny a port to
connect" and we'd be all on, but that's not likely to happen.

Instead, we still have the situation where Telecom sets the retail
product, then works out the "wholesale" (really just resale) rate and
passes it on to the ISPs. They have very little control over what they
can/can't offer in conjunction with the service and while Telecom is
happily offering its limited "unlimited" plan, the other ISPs are stuck
with the 4GB or 10GB/month/user aggregate limit, over which they start to
haemorrhage money.

So - earliest date we'll see any kit going in? I'd say July next year AT
THE EARLIEST and that's a tad optimistic now the select committee has
asked for an extension from early November to December.

Cheers,

Paul

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