Not Quite Right

I think most people have heard by now that the Evil Empire are trying to move the goalposts. Not content with having to sign a mere 83-odd-thousand people up to broadband through wholesalers, they're claiming that it was actually only about 50,000, and that they've already done it.

The Commerce Commission published letters between itself and Telecom, where the 83,333 figure is clearly re-stated as the one previously agreed and also the one to which the ComCom expect Theresa's crew to aspire.
It's a vain hope, with about, realistically, a month left in which to sign up new customers and have them conncted before everyone shuts down for the year. With roughly 30,000 wholesale connections still required, it would take a herculean effort by every other ISP to achieve it. Most of them, I hope, are smart enough to just drag the chain in order to ensure that the target isn't reached.

The other side of this situation, though, is the Government. Last year, Paul Swain was over-ruled when he went to the Cabinet and recommended unbundling the local loop. If David Cunliffe is similarly ignored, then it doesn't really matter one iota if the target is achieved.

I've said it before, the only way we will ever see truly competitive offerings is if Telecom is broken up. Structural separation. Split into retail and wholesale arms, with neither side being allowed to treat the other with any favour.
We saw it with Xtra, where the ISP was being sold lines by the telephone company at a hugely favourable rate. A rate that, supposedly, was available to any ISP that bought in sufficient bulk, but nobody was allowed to know how many lines one needed to be buying in order to get that level of discount. Other ISPs were similar in size, and getting charged double, or more, the apparent rate being granted to Xtra.
Similarly, peering. There are strong technical reasons why peering is a good thing, even from an accountancy perspective. An ISP ought to peer, to give customers the shortest possible path to content. However, for the sales weenies, it's bad to peer when you can sell a wholesale product that allows network interconnection. Sales usually wins in a shit-fight with operations, especially in a company like Telecon where most of management aren't operators. A retail ISP, disconnected from the sales bullshit of a wholesale connection provider, would likely peer because it's in their best interests.

Right now, my biggest fear is that Cabinet won't allow Cunliffe the free hand that this country needs. Denying LLU was a huge mistake, and blocking future drastic measures will simply ensure that we charge to the bottom of the OECD at all possible speed.