I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
Yesterday I attended a workshop with many of the key people in the NZ Telecommunications Industry to see if the industry could deliver a solution for a step change up in our broadband links to the world.
One of the great things about NZ is that we are small enough to get the key players together and that we all know each other pretty well. It was a vigorous discussion but in good spirits. No consensus but I think it gave a greater focus on what the key issues are and may lead to more research or some further defined options.
I was able to present my strawman on Funding Separation.
The short presentation I used is here: Funding Separation presentation.
The discussion gets reported back to the MED. I hope there is a second session.
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Its interesting watching the parallel approaches of the NZ and Australian government to state owned or state controlled Telecommunications infrastructure. There are quite a few parallels between Telstra and the FTTN network and NZ’s Telecom Separation issues.
Normally I am one that supports free enterprise, however I think we are moving into an era where it is advantagous for government to add an essence of assurity into our nations core capabilities - telecommunications, transport, ports etc.
The key is adopting a level of commercial sensibility and fair play into a regulatory framework - something that the ACCC is also struggling with.
I’m not convinced that it’s in the national interest to have the industry collude among themselves with the encouragement of the government. That said, I like your presentation, Rod :)
Rod, last February I became a believer in your model for the future of publicly funded broadband infrastructure, and have been arguing in its favour ever since.
I quote from the summary of your white paper:
“As an entrepreneur, my natural leanings are for minimal regulation and small
Government. But in the case of Broadband, I believe there are fundamental reasons why the people of New Zealand should own this important piece of infrastructure.
I do not believe the market can deliver the step change required to enable our many talented New Zealanders to participate fully in the global economy.
I believe it is entirely appropriate for New Zealanders to consider taking ownership of the physical digital pathways that connect our cities to each other and to the world.”
But now only 12 months later your tone has changed, asserting “Telecom is probably best qualified to run a network” and “we want the market to deliver a solution, not government funding”.
I’m sorry Rod but I don’t get it – how can you have such a dramatic reversal of belief within a year? Who has turned you to the “dark side”?!
New Zealand cannot afford to wait for bi-monthly talk fests amongst the telecom glitterati to reach a consensus. The only viable option to secure New Zealand’s future in the global world is for the government to take the lead and act without delay to spend the billions it will take to get fibre to the premises (FTTP).
The NZ Institute has released today their latest Broadband research project where they argue that “Failure to act now will constrain New Zealand to a slow path to FTTP, and will forego significant economic value”.
http://www.nzinstitute.org/Images/uploads/Assessing_NZs_current_broadband_path.pdf
Hi Keith,
I explain that here.
http://www.drury.net.nz/2007/12/09/funding-separation/
The network needs to funded by debt to be cost plus, but can be run by anyone. As in the NZI report the government needs to create the market conditions for investment at the infrastructure layer.
“glitterati”. Cool!
Check out this article from latest TUANZ This Week on No Conflict Networks
http://www.tuanz.org.nz/blog/e379f711-b2b6-4423-9e32-4a8bf9f301db/343fc818-2b98-4f1f-abad-452e1554a282.html
This product Nokia N810, offers linux & skype. No need for a landline phone and telco acct… There was an excellent article in the Wired Test magazine, as well as the recent Wired issue, with this gadget ranked at #2 best product. Some links to it attached.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/nokia-n810-gets-official/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N810
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3669465936.html
Getting fast broadband to a city near you…
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, an…