Telecom takes a whipp'n

Gov't Announcement

Campbell Live [windows media]

Computer World

NZ Herald

Telecom's reaction

OK, so Telecom finally have to unbundle the local loop, what does that mean? It means that other companies, if they install equipment at Telecom's existing exchanges, can now offer phone/internet services over your existing phone lines.

This is exactly what IHUGs parent (IINET) have been doing in Aussie, and doing fairly well by the sounds of it.

What's more interesting, in my mind, is that Telecom have to take the restrictions off the current UBS wholesale service. This means ISPs can offer ADSL services, at any speed they want (up or down) as long as the consumers distance from the exchange doesn't impact on it (note: ADSL v1 has about 8Mbit/s download and 800Kbit/s upload speeds as max, the further you are from the exchange, the slower it gets)

Good luck to the likes of Telstra, IHUG, Maxnet, Orcon, Slingshot (Callplus) and the other players... it's going to be interesting times for NZ broadband if Telecom doesn't do too much to hold this all up... (oh, yeah, they will of course resist as much as they can).