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Posted Tue 30 September 2008 @ 7:36 p.m. by Ernie

Today was it - the closing date for applications for the government's Broadband Investment Fund.I'm predicting that when the people at the Ministry of Economic Development count the applications in the morning, there'll be a truckload. My antennae tell me that an awful lot of smart people in local government, power lines companies, economic development agencies and the private sector have invested a huge amount of time in preparing applications since the deadline was announced late in August. Which...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | ISPs | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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Next generation networks - TUANZ responds to ComCom

Posted Mon 29 September 2008 @ 4:24 p.m. by Ernie

Submissions on the Commerce Commission questionnaire on next generation networks have now closed. TUANZ has put our response forward, compiled under the guidance of our Policy Committee. The questionnaire is but one step in a comprehensive study of NGN issues initiated by the Commission last March.Some of the key points TUANZ made are: There is a need for certainty over the scope and depth of access and interconnection rights between competing networks - uncertainty can be a barrier...

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Mobile roaming prices - Europe takes decisive action

Posted Sun 28 September 2008 @ 7:36 p.m. by Ernie

Grossly excessive rates for texting and mobile data across European countries are being dealt to, at last, by the European Commission.This week the EC progressed its proposal to lop 60% off the price of SMS texting. Roamers who currently pay an average of EUR.29 (NZD.59) per roamed text will see the price reduce to no more than EUR.11 (NZD.22) from July 2009. The wholesale cap underpinning this will be EUR.04.By comparison, Vodafone NZ customers pay a standard price for a text sent from overseas...

Categories: Innovation | Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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IPv6 acceleration - what does it mean for large users?

Posted Sun 28 September 2008 @ 5:17 p.m. by Ernie

Internet NZ has called for New Zealand to "lead the world" in the shift from the old IPv4 Internet address protocol, to IPv6, according to this article in Computerworld last Thursday.Now I think we all realised vaguely that at some time soon the world's stock of the old IPv4 numbers is going to run out. There's an understanding that "first world" countries will make the transition first, so as to release the residue of the old numbers to developing countries. That sounds admirable. So - if you...

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iPhone versus Blackberry - which is better for corporate users?

Posted Sun 28 September 2008 @ 11:57 a.m. by Ernie

I've been asked that question a couple of times lately. I'm indebted to Ben Creevy, ICT Manager of Theiss Business Services in Brisbane and a Board member of Aussie user group ATUG, for the analysis below:"Here at Thiess we have been doing our comparisons between the two products towards providing a standard within the business that ICT can support. In doing this exercise we have determined that the Blackberry platform offers a much stronger value proposition for our corporate users than...

Categories: Innovation | Vendors | Wireless carriers

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NZ Communications - where are you?

Posted Sun 28 September 2008 @ 10:32 a.m. by Ernie

There are times when declining to comment is a fair response to media interest. There are also times when hiding behind "no comment" is unacceptable.Last week, long time mobile market aspirant New Zealand Communications was guilty of the latter. In The Independent of 25 September, telecommunications writer Jenny Keown reported Vodafone's Tom Chignell accusing NZ Comms of lobbying the Commerce Commission for more and more concessions to the point of delaying its own market entry."....when's it going...

Categories: Innovation | Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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Urgency, Competition and honesty – LLU in the Wholesale market

Posted Thu 25 September 2008 @ 9:57 p.m. by Sarah

When Telecom announced its widespread cabinetisation programme last year it looked as if it might be over for wanna-be ISP’s that aspired to network ownership. Only the big guns like Vodafone and SOE-backed Orcon could afford the keys to the exchanges. And so far that’s been the case, but LLU is delivering competition at a wholesale level - in Auckland at least Slingshot was at the centre of Vodafone’s fixed-line announcement on Monday this week touting its wholesale services in 34 Auckland exchanges,...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | ISPs | Regulatory | TUANZ policy

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How can you hook up to Chorus fibre?

Posted Thu 25 September 2008 @ 4:03 p.m. by Sarah

Earlier this year David Isenberg challenged us to envisage what it would be like if a fat pipe ran down the street of every neighbourhood: “Imagine that each house could have two or three fibres, more bandwidth than a telco...” One TUANZ member thought the dream had become a reality when he noticed Chorus installing fibre-optic cable right past his front door. The technicians told him they were installing the fibre to a new subdivision at the end of his street. As a photographer based in Levin,...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | ISPs

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Success for Zeacom

Posted Thu 25 September 2008 @ 3:12 p.m. by Ernie

Congratulations to Zeacom's CEO Miles Valentine, who has been named the winner of the Technology category in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards. Miles launched Zeacom 14 years ago and continues to make a real mark on the telecommunications sector. Its an outstanding example of Kiwi innovation, with a very sizeable international presence.Zeacom has promoted its products through TUANZ many, many times over the years and has become a very respected part of the ICT scene here.TUANZ members...

Categories: Events | Fixed line carriers | Innovation | Wireless carriers

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How Vodafone and Telecom could make money from MVNOs

Posted Mon 22 September 2008 @ 3:40 p.m. by Sarah

It’s been a puzzle to me why a mobile network operator would allow a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) to run on their network if they weren’t forced to. While there might be regulatory advantages (that is, wholesaling services on a mobile network outwardly demonstrates a willingness to accept competition whilst not actually losing the customer), I was unsure what the competitive advantage would be. So when Mike Smathers, Nokia Siemens Head of Technology in Australia and New Zealand, told...

Categories: Innovation | Vendors | Wireless carriers

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Commissioner Patterson on extended leave

Posted Sun 21 September 2008 @ 2:03 p.m. by Ernie

Telecommunications Commissioner Dr Ross Patterson is taking extended leave for health reasons, the Commerce Commission has announced.On a personal level, this is sad news. With characteristic frankness, Ross has insisted the Commission make it clear that his health issue is alcohol-related. Since the word got around on Friday I've had several people comment that he is doing exactly the right thing in the circumstances. "It's good when people recognisse the issue and take the right steps", said one...

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4 October - the day to get rid of your old computers

Posted Fri 19 September 2008 @ 8:37 a.m. by Ernie

Saturday 4 October is e-day. That's the day to send old computers and related electronic waste to designated collection points all arond New Zealand for environmentally- sensitive diisposal.TUANZ is not directly involved but firmly supports this annuial initiative.Details here. If in doubt, chuck it out!

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Posted Thu 18 September 2008 @ 2:56 p.m. by Ernie

Thanks to Rick Shera of InternetNZ a number of industry bodies, TUANZ included, are now aware of the insidious provisions of the Copyright Amendment Act that was passed in April but has not yet been implemented. Thankfully, because it is fundamentally a flawed and unworkable piece of law.Few people would disagree that the musicians and others who own copyright to digital content are entitled to have their legitimate interests protected. But a workable balance has to be found between the interests...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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Numbering needs sorting out

Posted Thu 18 September 2008 @ 1:57 p.m. by Sarah

Under the current numbering rules, it appears all a service provider needs to do to get a block of New Zealand numbers from anywhere in the world is to pay an annual $10,000 subscription to the Number Administration Deed (NAD) and $500 per number block. Now you might think that’s a pretty loose way to administer a country’s numbering system, and the Commerce Commission would probably agree. It released a report last month clearly stating the view that numbering is a national resource and should...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Regulatory

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Internal investigation at ComCom

Posted Mon 15 September 2008 @ 1:48 p.m. by Ernie

I was sad to see that Commerce Commission member Donal Curtin has stood down while the Commission conducts an investigation into a possible failure to declare an interest.Donal Curtin has been a Commission member for seven years and was recently named deputy chair. He's been alongside Telecommunications Commissioners Doug Webb and Ross Patterson in many of the Commission's telecommunications enquiries, and exhibited a strong knowledge of the sector as well as an awesome intellect. He's...

Categories: Regulatory | TUANZ policy

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Commerce Commission drills down on NGN

Posted Mon 15 September 2008 @ 1:28 p.m. by Ernie

The Commerce Commission's study of the impact of next generation networks has taken a step further with the release of a Consultation Questionnaire. There are just 23 questions in total, but collectively they represent quite an intellectual challenge in looking ahead at what the giant step of moving to IP networks will mean for the industry and its major customers, especially the implications for competition policy.TUANZ will be responding through our Policy Committee and especially...

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What price competition in fibre?

Posted Thu 11 September 2008 @ 1:32 p.m. by Sarah

The British report into the costs of next generation networks released by the Broadband Stakeholder Group this week rates the cost of Fibre to the Home as five times more expensive to deploy than Fibre to the Cabinet (what Telecom are calling Fibre to the Node). It also claims that the cost of a Point to Point FTTH deployment is 15 per cent higher than GPON (see previous Downstream blog about the difference). These are billion dollar investments, and certainly FTTC stacks up significantly cheaper...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation

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Users object to high termination rates, residents object to cell sites

Posted Tue 9 September 2008 @ 3:20 p.m. by Sarah

Mobile termination rates are once again in the Commerce Commission’s sights. The commission released an issues paper about the prices that providers pay to terminate calls on mobile networks last month and TUANZ has sent through its submission. In it we discuss the effect that high termination rates are having on the prices mobile users pay and on a competitive mobile market. You can read the TUANZ submission here. The other big issue in mobile competition is Co-Location on cell sites. The latest...

Categories: Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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MVNO - black, white and red

Posted Mon 8 September 2008 @ 11:37 a.m. by Sarah

Had an interesting visit last week from Johnathan Eele, whose start-up Black + White looks set to the be first MVNO to launch in this country. I see from the Stuff and ComputerWorld websites this morning that Johnathan has been doing the rounds and good for him, it’s how you get your name out there. Both articles by Tom Pullar-Strecker and Juha Saarinen are the usual thorough, detailed articles that we’d expect from these two reporters and they confirm pretty much what Johnathan told me. So why...

Categories: Vendors | Wireless carriers

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NZ mobile aspirants "Impotent" - Goldman Sachs

Posted Thu 4 September 2008 @ 10:15 a.m. by Ernie

Computerworld tells us today that Goldman Sachs have issued a crushing analysis of the New Zealand mobile market, describing new entrants as "impotent." dismissing the potential impact of long-promised MVNOs, and welcoming the prospect of stronger regulation including termination rates.This gels neatly with my own comments on this blog a few days ago.I trust Commissioner Paterson, Minister Cunliffe, and the potential Ministers in Waiting have all seen this.

Categories: Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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Portability - pass the Port!

Posted Thu 4 September 2008 @ 9:58 a.m. by Ernie

A big milestone for the Telecommunications Carriers Forum. The hundred thousandth number to be ported since the introduction of number portability happened recently.As I've often said, the campaign for portability was one of the most gruelling in my time so far at TUANZ. There was the unsuccessful attempt to dissuade the Commerce Commission from approving the flawed Number Administration Deed in 1999; the endless NAD meetings where the "old" Telecom stonewalled interminably; and the long debate about...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers

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IOG Web site operational

Posted Mon 1 September 2008 @ 9:35 a.m. by Ernie

Two months after I was advised I am finally getting around to recording that the Independent Oversight Group - the body that monitors operational separation of Telecom - has a very useful Web site up and running.The site contains enough information to assure any doubters that the process is functioning effectively. There is a schedule of meeting dates, a list of members, Terms of Reference, and an interesting summary of each meeting.For example, topics traversed at the July meeting included...

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TelstraClear back in mobile market

Posted Mon 1 September 2008 @ 9:12 a.m. by Ernie

Its been a busy Sunday answering a zillion media enquitries about TelstraClear's new mobile offering, launching tomorrow.There's a lot of history here. TelstraClear used once to cohabit with Vodafone in the mobile space. In July a year ago that collapsed with an acrimonious bust-up.Then last November it re-entered the mobile market through Telecom with a package forSMEs, promising that residential and corporates would follow.So today we have the residential part of the package. It...

Categories: Fixed line carriers | Innovation | ISPs | Wireless carriers

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