ISPANZ welcomes Amendment Bill

14 December 2006

ISPANZ welcomes Amendment Bill, looks forward to the Unbundled Local Loop

ISPANZ (The Internet Service Providers Association of New Zealand) welcomes the passing of the Telecommunications Amendment Bill yesterday and looks forward to the new environment of the Unbundled Local Loop and Operational Separation for Telecom.

"We congratulate the Minister of Communications Hon David Cunliffe and his colleagues in the Government for driving through telecommunications reform. And it is pleasing that the National Party and most other parties also supported the Bill in its final form," says ISPANZ President David Diprose.

“The passing of the legislation will eliminate uncertainty in the market, allow Telecom and its competitors to bed down their investment plans, and encourage players up the ladder of investment.

"ISPANZ notes that this is the beginning of a larger process of industry reform and expresses its support for a robust Operational Separation plan that squarely puts the bottleneck network assets including copper loops, backhaul and incoming fibre in the network division of Telecom.

This will reinforce “Equivalence of Inputs” in the unbundled environment and ensure competition and innovation blossom in the ISP industry. Like the Minister we anticipate lower cost and more variety of broadband services for consumers and economic benefits for New Zealand.”

ISPANZ would also like to acknowledge the positive change within Telecom since the May announcement. This has been apparent in its interactions with ISPs in the TCF LLU working groups.

"The attitude of Telecom in the TCF LLU working groups is very positive. Telecom is cooperating constructively with the rest of the industry and appears to be making good progress readying its local loop for access by competing service providers. We look forward to providing service to the first LLU customers," says Diprose.

ENDS

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