New Zealand does the right thing
When I was in New Zealand a few weeks ago, I heard an awful story about Telecom — the local monopoly phone company. It seems that a law firm in New Zealand suddenly noticed that their online connection was barely working. They called Telecom. Telecom said:
I'm sorry, but you've exceeded your monthly bit allowance.
The law firm protested and asked for additional bandwidth (and would have paid for it). Answer: No.
So now we have some good news out of New Zealand (a country that has been worried about its broadband penetration standing): Telecom's lock on online access is being broken by regulation, in a few ways.
1. The incumbent is going to have to permit ISPs to interconnect with its network — the local loop will be unbundled.
2. The incumbent will have to separately produce accounts (and have those accounts monitored) concerning its wholesale business.
3. The government will encourage investment, both private and public, in alternative online access methods, and will work on making spectrum available for wireless alternatives.
4. The government will continue to analyze structural separation — considering making Telecom act like “only a pipe” by separating its wholesale from its retail operations.
The entire (very large) Cabinet paper is here. Those Kiwis could teach us a thing or two.
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