My telco week
Monday
Telecom is first cab off the telco rank with its announcement that, yes, it will consider structural separation. Yes, it will bid for a combined rural and urban solution in the government’s Ultra Fast Broadband scheme. Yes, it will do everything it can in its power and with the support of its long-suffering shareholders to maintain its monopoly power for ever and ever and ever. Oops, got a bit carried away...
Chorus2 can deliver on urban and rural fibre
Tuesday
Fifteen minutes late to the 2degrees 3G launch on account of the fact the company has held it in a warehouse on the Auckland waterfront and it takes ages find the place. It is very dark inside and there is a smoke machine going. Don’t know why. Stumble around and bump into Andy Scott. His company owns 28.8 percent of 2degrees, a shareholding that is apparently worth $100 million. Take his photo. Turns out fine.
Wednesday
An 8.32am email from ICT minister Steven Joyce informs me he will be regulating mobile termination rates (OK, so everyone got the same release and it came from his press secretary). Spend morning collecting responses from the industry and adding them to the online story. Last one in is Vodafone, squeaking in with a statement at 11.37am - it is disappointed. Don’t include Labour spokesperson Clare Curran’s reaction because she writes in the release, “This is a victory for Labour, for consumers and for new entrants into the mobile market.” Some of us have long memories and remember that when Labour had the opportunity to regulate MTRs, it blinked.
Mobile termination rates will be regulated
Thursday
Fifteen minutes late to the Telecom HSPA+ launch on account of the fact that I posted three stories on the UFB and Telecom’s Operational Separation Variation 4 to the Computerworld website before the 9am start. Arrive in time to hear Telecom head of retail Alan Gourdie talking about “A smokin’ hot device.” This turns out to be the Motorola Milestone handset. The XT Network has been upgraded to HSPA+, which increases average network speeds to 4Mbps.
Attending the launch are the guys from fashion design label Huffer, who shoot people doing cool stuff (like snowboarding) when wearing the company's clothes and then upload the video to its website over the XT Network. After the formal presentation Dan and Glen from Huffer tell me they love technology and that just because everything you do can be googled it shouldn’t put you off, not if you live a “true, honest existence.”
When I get back to the office I see that Clare Curran has emailed me. In this press release she informs me she has been asking Minister Joyce pesky questions that he is not answering: “The question put to Mr Joyce in the House today was:
Given his logical decision to regulate on MTR, what is the basis of his illogical decision to give a regulatory free pass to the coming new fibre networks for 10 years? In ruling out the question Speaker Lockwood Smith also refused to allow the following question:
Given the Government’s conflicting role as an investor and regulator of the new network, how will New Zealanders who take up fibre know that you are putting their interests first? ‘I think New Zealanders, who want ultrafast broadband and want a new network which delivers benefits for them using $1.5 billion in taxpayer’s money, would like to know the answers to both those questions,’ Clare Curran said." We're ready to go: Vector
Industry slams Telecom's request for relief
Telecom seeks relief on three-way split
Friday
An iPhone 4 has arrived in the office! Alas it is not for Computerworld, it’s for PC World. Those guys get all the good toys.
Mention of true, honest existences
From the series 'What it's really like to work in a music store - 1 to 5'
Hat tip to bboybri