“Telecom’s strong preference is to align the interests of its equity and debt holders with those of the Government and New Zealanders,” said Paul Reynolds, CEO, Telecom. “The Government’s UFB initiative will fundamentally reshape the structure of the entire telecommunications industry in New Zealand and Telecom is therefore undertaking a thorough assessment of the merits of structural separation.

“In making a thorough assessment of structural separation we need to have a detailed understanding of the regulatory environment, and this warrants detailed discussion and analysis with Government before any decisions regarding its viability can be made,” he said.

“We are conscious that we should all be focused on how best to create New Zealand’s fibre future.

“However Telecom is required by legislation to deliver significant system and technology projects envisaged for a pre-fibre world. A large proportion of these projects must be deployed this year, so it seems sensible at this time to reassess these projects to avoid significant congestion and waste.

“As a result we have asked the Minister to consider a variation on three components of Telecom’s Undertakings that we believe will no longer be relevant in a fibre future.

“These three amendments will not impact on the service levels experienced by our end user and industry customers, and will not detract from the EOI level playing field. Rather, they reflect how fast the policy and technology environment is evolving in telecommunications.

“In these three areas Telecom, industry participants and New Zealand consumers face significant costs and risks of disruption that were not foreseeable at the time the commitments were made. They also lock Telecom, the industry and the Government into some choices which should be considered as part of the UFB initiative and the potential structural separation of Telecom,” he said.

The proposed changes are to:

- Suspend the forced bulk migration of existing broadband customers onto a new copper-based broadband service. We will, however, continue to supply this new broadband service to all new customers;

- Remove the requirement for Telecom to migrate 17,000 customers onto a new VoIP over copper service by the end of this year;

- Remove the requirement for Telecom to build a new set of wholesale systems that are not consistent with the industry structure implied by UFB.

Telecom’s fibre-to-the-node programme is not impacted by the variation requests.

Where is this going to leave those who do not get fibre to the door by telco companies, is this going to make any improvement to Internet services for those who get stuck with their telco not wanting to provide fibre installation or is this just going to put more cost onto the public in order to get fibre to their door.

Personally, I love the idea that by 2013 we will have high speed, uncapped data Internet. In reality I can see this being yet another initiative that will benefit the minority who can afford to have their incoming lines upgraded.

According to the Pacific Fibre website, “providing access at major CBD POPs for customers” in Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Las Angeles. Does this mean that if you’re not in the CBD of those major areas, we are not to expect it to make any difference to those out of the areas.

I wait with anticipation that this will be of true benefit to New Zealand as a whole.

I have to say, I am impressed with the newer versions of Ubuntu Linux and am excited to be moving off proprietary software. I’ve just ordered a new 320gig hard drive for my laptop so once that arrives I’ll be single booting the laptop with Ubuntu and putting the 80gig windows drive away as a “backup” windows installation just in case.

Listener Links

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Seems like only yesterday was the beginning of 2009, and now we’re in to 2010. Just when I get use to writing one year I have to remember to write a new one Got an awesome show lined up for you. I have made some minor changes to the pre show preparation that goes into the show before recording actually starts. I hope you’ll bear with me while I fine tune the show production.

I should also note that after a very pathetic episode 1, which probably should never have been released when it was. But as a friend and fellow podcaster says, “It is what it is”

Follow me on Twitter @kimmynz
Join the XTN Podcast Facebook Fan Page
My Personal Facebook Profile
Show Comments, Call +1-206-203-4614 or Email podcast@xunil.co.nz

Listener Links

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Auckland eruption evacuation software developed
Microsoft: Customers should upgrade from IE6 and IE7
Microsoft has a plan to improve Bing’s poor indexing
Google lowers cost of Nexus One upgrade
US will complain to China about Google hacking
Wellington claims top speeds
Canonical causes ruckus by asking which new apps users want on Ubuntu
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IBM and RIM launch enterprise collaboration and social networking on Blackberry platform
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Judge reduces US$2 million music sharing verdict to $54k
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Rural women slam govt broadband plan

Exciting stuff happening around here at the moment. One of them being the new Xunil Tech News Podcast  – A weekly look at tech news from New Zealand and around the world.

Lots of planning and organisation going into this and so far everything is on track, except for a couple of WordPress plugin issues I’m having but hopefully they’ll get sorted in the near future and neither effect the podcast directly.

Follow me on Twitter @kimmynz
Become a fan on the Facebook Fan Page
Email me podcast@xunil.co.nz

Listener Links

How major labels cook the books with digital downloads

Show Links

Microsoft, Yahoo take next step in search alliance

AOL ends ties with Time Warner

Iran slows internet access before student protest

Google and news media clash continues

Atea 1 Rocket – The New Zealand claim to space fame

Hybrid TV, Sky face off

Power surge fallout sinks health systems

Privacy improvements at Facebook

Traditional gifts top Trade Me Xmas Searches

Interesting 2009 Google statistics for New Zealand

Telecom fined $500,000 for misleading broadband advertising

Cell phones are safe again. (Until they aren’t)

Apple buys ‘MP3 killer’ Lala.com

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Women says online auction site is a scam