The NZ broadband debate continues
I see Telecom’s suggestion for a network separation as meaningful - it (ubiquitous, open access, very high speed, very high volume, national and international network infrastructure) will all cost a lot more than everyone thinks, and Telecom (and its shareholders) are not prepared to pick up that tab.
Rod Drury has posted an interesting estimate of what it would cost to upgrade NZ broadband, as part of his case for a telecom infrastructure SOE. I just wish we could get some solid facts so that the debate was based on sound information. I think Rod’s estimates are somewhat underdone, but it would be nice for someone to prove me wrong.
Disclosure: I have an investment interest in all major NZ telcos, and they are all customers and/or suppliers to Fronde.
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April 30th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Hi Jim - the problem here is that unless we have (economics 101) perfect knowledge of the market, we cannot make a truly informed decision. The true costs of infrastructure development and maintenance is somewhat clouded by the hyperbole on both sides of the debate and thus the opinions of the majority are swayed by the spin of the few. I guess this is were an apolitical, non business aligned group such as TUANZ can come to the plate and show it’s value in facilitating accurate estimates of costs and income streams. Regards Ben
benkepes.wordpress.com
April 30th, 2007 at 8:29 am
[…] provisioning issue as it related to the structural separation of Telecom. Both Rod Drury and Jim Donovan have posted some interesting comments. The fact of the matter is that we will never get an accurate […]
Ed. Name changed to originator for brevity
March 30th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
[…] I’ve been sceptical about many of the frequent calls for “someone” to build a state-owned high speed broadband network throughout New Zealand. My argument, basically, is that if it was a viable proposition, someone would build it, and empirically, since no-one has, the economics don’t stack up. However, things have moved on since Rod Drury’s initial attempts to get fast broadband onto the national agenda. He’s got together with various smart people who understand something about networks and economics, and their proposals are now starting to take on an air of feasibility. At a function last week, Rod outlined some new perspectives (my comments are in italics): […]