Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Unfinished business in NZ 700MHz band
In Spectrum
fight goes on and on Telecommunications Users
Association Of New Zealand CEO Paul Brislen
reports:
The Commerce Commission has again delayed giving clearance to Telecom to buy the last block of management rights for 700MHz spectrum.
From the outside it looks like another set of crossed wires between the Commerce Commission doing its job of promoting market competition and misguided government policy.
As Brislen writes in his blog post — and has told me often — the problem is that Vodafone holds about 300 MHz of wireless spectrum, Telecom NZ has roughly 200 MHz and 2degrees has about 100 MHz. This makes for an uneven market. There's a danger 2degrees will be effectively shut out leaving New Zealand with two powerful mobile giants and one minnow.
To put things in perspective, that last chunk of unsold spectrum is only a couple of percent of the total.
Even though the 700 MHz band is the wireless equivalent of prime real estate, on its own it probably isn't enough to tilt the balance one way or another. On the other hand, if the Commerce Commission wants to start unpicking the lack of competition in mobile phone spectrum, this would be a good place to start.
Bill Bennett
Freelance journalist.
Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
His emphasis is on telecommunications, but he also covers other aspects of technology and business. You can find his features in the New Zealand Herald and hear him regularly on RNZ Nine to Noon and the NZ Tech Podcast.
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