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Submission to NZ regulatory review

The Ministry of Business Innovation and employment NZ is moving to the building block method (BBM) adopted by the ACCC some years ago.There are several ultra-fast broadband providers in NZ and one of them also has a copper network with no decommissioning deadline. The Ministry is seeking views on how this wholesale sector should be regulated from 2020.

My submission suggests that the BBM is just one step towards the utility style regulation that it wants. NZ has the opportunity to also adopt utility style wholesale pricing which addresses its concerns about anchor products, encourages adoption and use of broadband networks while avoiding the mistakes made by Canada and Australia.

The submission can be accessed here: NZ-2016

Hobson’s choice with NBN Co. pricing

NBN Co.’s July consultation paper on pricing and billing has wilfully ignored the only serious option that has been put up against its own product and pricing construct. Unless it is changed, the NBN will not be affordable and will not increase broadband utilisation.

This paper calibrates the options against the 2012-2015 NBN Corporate Plan and other analysis.

It includes the “traffic model” as Option 6 and concludes that this will make the NBN more affordable and give the industry the certainty is seeks in future reductions in unit traffic charges.

The paper can found by clicking here: Economuse 2014-08-14

Can we go faster and cheaper, please?

How compelling is the NBN value proposition? From May 2014, the early NBN release sites are being disconnected from the copper and HFC networks.

The column looks at the implications of take-up and speed choices for NBN’s viability and the national interest.

It also shows how the alternative traffic pricing model (that I have advocated for a number of years now) would make the NBN more affordable for voice-only users and also make the NBN more competitive against mobile services.

To read the column, click here: Economuse 2014-07-21

Utility pricing for the NBN

The focus of NBN Co. management has been on supply – stabilising the roll out of the access network under the new design rules intended to make the NBN available more quickly and more cheaply.

The focus needs to shift to demand – what pricing structure will efficiently recover costs, achieve policy objectives and promote the adoption and utilisation of the NBN?

This opinion piece explains why the current AVC/CVC pricing model is flawed and needs to be reviewed before the next corporate plan is completed.

For more, see Economuse 2014-06-10