RIP 0867
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Posted Thu 2 September 2010 @ 8:24 a.m. by Ernie Newman
Thank heaven its all over at last.
Its taken more than eleven years after Telecom stunned the industry in May 1999 by diverting all dial-up calls to an 0867 prefix and thereby depriving Clear Communications of its sizeable wholesale business hosting a range of smaller ISPs. But at last the High Court has cleared Telecom.
0867 was a watershed change that altered the shape of the ISP industry for ever.
There was a lot of emotion at the time - a huge amount. I talked about that last night on Radio NZ's "Checkpoint." I felt for the people affected very strongly at the time. Some are still scarred.
My feeling at yesterday’s news was gratitude that such a debacle could never happen again. An industry as fast moving as telecommunications simply cannot work in a legal environment that takes 11 years to finally decide the rights and wrongs. It is just so fortunate that we now have a pro-active, precise regulatory regime, enshrined in the Telecommunications Act, administered capably and predictably by the Commerce Commission.
RIP 0867. May no debacle like this one ever sully telecommunications again.
Categories: Broadband | Fixed line carriers | ISPs | Regulatory | TUANZ policy