universal service
Changing business models n Australia and the Cook Islands
This paper is for telecoms operators and regulators who are trying to understand how business models for telecommunications have evolved and what this means for them today. It draws on the author’s forty years of experience in Australia and applies it to the specific case of the Cook Islands.
A close friend of mine made some very flattering remarks about this paper:
“It’s the first time I’ve read an article with such a holistic and succinct overview of the evolution of telecommunications and the impact of global digitisation on telecoms operating companies providing transport and delivery infrastructures”. Richard Wiatr is a former senior executive and telecoms engineer who has spent 40 years in the industry.
Some operators are currently looking to regulators to fix the loss of revenues from the move into the digital era. This paper puts the issue into perspective and suggests what they should be doing.
Universal Service and Competition
In both Australia and the Cook Islands the impact of infrastructure competition on mandated geographically uniform pricing is being (or proposed to be) addressed with a levy. The different approaches to measuring costs and setting the levy are contrasted.
The paper proposes that a universal service levy has to be coupled with consistent access pricing to have efficient competition consistent with universal service policy. Interconnection between networks is free in the Cook Islands but the pricing of resold wholesale services should be consistent with the aims of the levy; to ensure universal service and efficient competition.
This the preprint http://deridder.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Universal-service-and-competition-.pdf
The final paper appears in the AJTDE Volume 9, Issue 3 at https://doi.org/10.18080/jtde.v9n3.437
NBN – more convoluted pricing
On 18th September, the NBN published details of its much anticipated “discounted” Entry Level Bundle (ELB). It is very disappointing. It does not provide an affordable entry-level plan; which will make its job of holding users in the migration from copper services more difficult. see Economuse 2018-09-21
A New Approach to Rural and Remote Communications
This is the refereed paper that appears in the September 2017 issue of the Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy Safetynet AJTDE
SafetyNet
I have had the good fortune to work with Bob James (we developed the TransAct NBN Mark I business case) and Robin Eckermann (the Australian father of FTTN – 10 years ahead of the Commonwealth).
We have developed the idea attached; which could be a game changer for rural and remote customers. The concept is novel but not rocket science. Aceptance and execution will be tricky.