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Then, while I was trawling the newswires for suitable stories to include in the headline-links section of this column, I came across this commentary from Chris Barton over at the Herald.

After reading that I realised that I'd set myself too difficult a challenge for a Friday morning and gave up on playing Mr Nice Guy.

My rationale for doing a pro-Telecom column was this discussion on the Aardvark Forums where a poster suggests that I'm just going out of my way to be negative about our encumbent telco.

Well I've got news for that poster -- it's clearly not just Aardvark that considers Telecom to deserve a good telling-off for the outrageous way it jealously guards and leverages its monopoly.

And I'm right behind Chris when he suggest that the buck has to stop with those government ministers who, for whatever reason, seem hell-bent on ensuring this situation continues.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

There is light on the horizon however, and I suspect that Telecom's shareholders won't be too happy about it.

After much procrastination and more than a few technical hurdles, it appears as if the suggestion I made back in march of 2003 is finally becoming a reality.

But it doesn't stop there.

As Chris Barton has discovered, VOIP using wireless connectivity is ready for the big-time and wireless internet vendors around NZ are itching to role out competitive products that knock Telecom out of the loop (so to speak).

In fact, if these wireless companies had half a clue, they'd forget about pushing broadband internet as their product and focus on selling the voice connection as an alternative to Telecom.

Not everyone needs broadband internet, but just about everyone *does* need a telephone -- hence the market is far larger and internet access is just a bonus for many people.

Once these WiFi-cellular phones become readily available then those companies who have well-distributed and reliable WiFi networks will really hold the upper hand and Telecom's grip on the market will be significantly weakened.

But don't expect Telecom to go out without a whimper.

You can bet your bottom dollar that they'll do everything within their power to bitch, grizzle, moan, lobby and procrastinate over key issues such as number portability, the provision of reliable/timely interconnects, etc.

It's at this point however that all Telecom's past behaviour might come back to bite them on the bum. Most consumers tend to be creatures of great inertia and generally find that there has to be a significant benefit on offer before they'll go to all the hassle of changing their loyalties. Although these new providers may well be able to offer those such benefits, I'm thinking that there are more than a few people who'll jump-ship just to be out from under the thumb of a company that has repeatedly shown a tendency to abuse its power.

If Telecom isn't worried by all this, they ought to be.

They must realise that they're in an industry where technology is moving at an increasingly rapid pace and the market is capable of doing the same. When someone comes out with a nation-wide low-cost alternative to the regular local-loop voice/data service that has the added bonus of compatibility with the new dual-mode cellphones, I expect Telecom will be in big trouble.

The only problem I can see for any would-be competitor to Telecom is that the company currently expects to show an $820m profit (that's over $200 profit from every man, woman and child in NZ) next year, which can be poured back into subsidising its own services through very agressive price-cutting.

Either way, the consumer is the winner though and if Telecom did hack the snot out of its own prices they'd find it very difficult to explain why, once the competition was eradicated, they were hiking them back up.

And even if they successfully fended off a wireless attack, there are other brightlights on the horizon such as Skype (here's an interesting article from NBR).

So, today's question for the brighter than average people who make up Aardvark's readership is: would/will you switch to a wireless VOIP provider when/if one becomes available in your area?

If you've got an opinion, why not tell us all in Aardvark Forums.

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