The Internet Service Providers Association of New Zealand (ISPANZ) has finally incorporated as a society several months after its formation and says it is making headway in providing better value internet service.
However, when pressed on what ISPANZ is actually doing to provide better broadband for New Zealanders, the association’s president David Diprose was unable to supply any details.
Diprose, whose day job is general manager of regulatory affairs at Ihug, says, “We will be able to share more detail about our programme of work within the next two weeks”.
However, the association’s website at www.ispanz.org.nz says the group is placing its bets on the Commerce Commission issuing a positive “bitstream determination” that will allow its members to wholesale Telecom’s DSL service on better terms. ISPANZ has also written to the government and met with telecommunications minister David Cunliffe to discuss the group’s objectives.
Even though it is a forum aimed at communicating with the public, ISPANZ still has two anonymous members. Now that ISPANZ has become an incorporated society, Diprose says anonymous memberships will not continue. “Those sitting on the fence will have to choose one way or the other within the next week,” Diprose says.
Diprose says that TelstraClear has expressed a desire to join ISPANZ, but at the first meeting of the group, it was decided to hold off adding new members until the incorporation had been completed. TelstraClear’s corporate communications manager Ralph Little confirmed that the telco and ISPANZ are in talks about how the two organisations can best work together.
According to Diprose, other New Zealand network providers such as Citylink have approached ISPANZ to see if they can join the association.
Missing from the line-up is medium-sized Auckland ISP Orcon, which was early out of the gate reselling Telecom’s DSL under the Unbundled Bitstream Service moniker. Orcon’s managing director, Seeby Woodhouse, was contacted by Computerworld for comment, but didn’t respond by deadline.