NZ Telecom holds for govt's call
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What happens if the New Zealand Government decides Telecom is not the winner of the bid to roll out fibre to the home?
Next month the New Zealand Government will make a call on who will win a $1.5 billion subsidy to roll out an ultra-fast broadband network across the country. One of the requirements is that the winner should not have retail telecommunications customers. Telecom NZ has remedied that issue by offering to divide itself structurally.
As you'll hear in today's program, even though they're the obvious choice, there is no guarantee that Telecom will win the contract. If not it is likely to continue rolling out its fibre to the node network, eventually extending it to the home. I'd have thought that makes any competing fibre access network entirely unworkable.
Of course, when politicians are involved, crazy decisions can be made but, if good sense reigns and Telecom NZ gets the gig, then there are a few take-outs from New Zealand. Telecom NZ will arrive at a much more elegant solution than the approach taken here in Australia.
You'll hear from:
- Rosemary Howard: former CEO of Telstra Clear, now executive director AGSM Executive Programs
- Rosalie Nelson: research manager, Telecommunications at IDC
- Ernie Newman: CEO of Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand
- Rod Oram: business journalist, author and columnist for Sunday Star-Times
- Mark Ratcliffe: executive lead, Ultra-Fast Broadband program, Telecom New Zealand.
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Running time: 32 minutes