Sponsor's Message

Yes, the Commerce Commission, in its infinite wisdom, is of the (preliminary) opinion that it would be a good thing to force Telecom to give others access to the valuable piece of copper that connects almost every Kiwi house to the rest of the world.

It's pretty obvious that Telecom was expecting the entry of wireless data vendors such as Wired Country and Woosh to act as proof that there was plenty of competition in the marketplace, despite the telco's monopoly.

But it seems that the CC aren't that easily fooled (thank goodness).

Now someone at Telecom ought to be packing their desk today, because if they'd only given a little ground without being forced, then chances are that the CC might have come up with a different opinion.

However, the problem with monopolies is that the breed a culture of greed and a mindset of invulnerability to external forces.

With this in mind, I have little doubt that the CC's ruling has come as a bit of a shock to those holed-up in Telecom's corporate tower.

Come on guys, imagine -- if you'd just played a *little* fair instead of being so hell-bent on preserving your monopoly, you might not be facing the huge challenge to your dominance that unbundling represents.

But the rest of us need not get too excited just yet.

Big wheels (especially those driven by government) grind exceeding slow and the CC's final ruling won't have any discernable effect on the appearance of new DSL providers for at least 18 months.

So what can Telecom do to offset this tragic loss of their monopoly?

Well here's a suggestion -- why not slash your own DSL rates to the bone. Get rid of those ridiculous 500MB-2GB caps and that outrageous $0.10-$0.20 per MB excess data charge.

Why not simply deliver DSL products and services that are so aggressively priced that your competitors will find it very difficult to compete, even when the copper is opened up to all.

Why not announce these prices next week and show us that you are prepared to throw off those old monopolistic ways and join the real world where there's this ugly little word called "competition".

Let's face it -- you managed to do exactly this when the toll-market was opened up to other players and real competition, why not do it now -- instead of waiting for the Commerce Commission to bring out the thumb-screws and eye-gougers?

Or maybe they'll just stick with the tried and proven tactic of lobbying government ministers *really* hard. One only has to look at the atrocious performance of past and present IT ministers in respect to reigning in Telecom's excesses to see how effective this tactic is. This bad track record goes back as far as Maurice Williamson and probably beyond.

I don't see the current minister being any less susceptible to this tactic and in the NZ Herald this morning, Chris Barton suggests that Swain isn't in favour of unbundling the loop.

Lighten Up
Yes, it's the best day of the week: Friday, and here's your regular dose of the stuff that helps relieve the stresses and strains of the past five days.

Despite the plethora of movies like Spiderman, Superman, Batman and X-men, superheros are really quite thin on the ground in the "real world". But wait... is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Angle Grinder Man. Yaaaaayyy!

There are some sports where you learn to expect the worst. This guy obviously did.

And check out this bright person. Obviously, when it comes to using a crash helmet, they need to RTFM!.

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