ComCom seeks telco regulation fund help

The Commerce Commission has asked the telecommunications industry how to fund the $12 million it estimates it will cost to fund new fibre regulations.

Last week the Commission said it would launch a new fibre study as Parliament considers moving to a utility regulatory model.

If that happens, fibre networks will need more scrutiny from the regulator. This will in turn mean more staff and higher costs.

New rules, more costs

Proposed legislation would have the Commission establish new rules and develop information disclosure requirements for the fibre companies: Chorus, Enable Networks, UFF and Northpower.

It also requires the Commission to set the maximum revenue that Chorus can charge its customers as well as determine the quality of service it must provide.

The Commerce Commission also wants to know if consumer groups should get funding so they can take more part in regulatory processes. This is the practice in the UK and Australia.

For now the Commerce Commission is looking for ideas from the industry before it goes back to the government. One option is to ask the government to increase the industry levy.

Telecommunications Commissioner Stephen Gale says the extra work will cost the Commerce Commission $12 million a year over three years. He says funding consumer groups will add another million over the three years.

Digital divide target as Chorus calls for 5G infrastructure sharing

Chorus wants the government to consider infrastructure sharing so any future 5G network reaches users across New Zealand. It says the government's 5G strategy should take the digital divide into account. Otherwise, it warns, significant parts of the economy could miss out.

This approach gels with the Labour-lead government's goal of reducing the digital divide.

Chorus CEO Kate McKenzie says: "Because the economics of 5G will be challenging, we believe a business as usual deployment by three operators is unlikely to achieve economically sustainable broad deployment.

5G roll-outs focused on cities

“Commercial operators will, quite rightly, seek to generate a commercial return from their investments, meaning 5G rollouts are likely to be incremental, focused on cities and with potentially higher costs to consumers.

“But that may see significant segments of the economy, such as rural or the less able to pay, miss out while cities and the well-off get the benefit, and this will harm New Zealand’s overall competitiveness.

Chorus welcomed the government's plan to look at infrastructure sharing and called for an industry discussion about it.

Carriers not keen

Mobile carriers Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees have previously dismissed Chorus's proposal for government involvement in 5G infrastructure. However, the network company's submission to a request from MBIE for perspectives on a 5G rollout point out are multiple ways of sharing infrastructure. These include commercial site sharing agreements, network slicing and a regulated open access network.

McKenzie says Chorus assets are already used by all mobile operators and not all future sharing arrangements would require regulatory intervention.

She says: "A sensible exploration of all the options is warranted to effectively address the digital divide."

Chorus has also called for some spectrum to be held back from an initial auction to support future innovation.

Vodafone to bundle basic TV service with some home plans

Vodafone customers on some Ultimate Home broadband plans will get the company's new TV Intro product as part of their package. Vodafone TV intro is a cut-down version of the company's streaming service that offers 18 free-to-air channels.

TV Intro will include on-demand apps from local broadcasters such as ThreeNow, TVNZ On Demand and WatchMe. Vodafone says customers will be able to switch between viewing on televisions, tablets and phones.

Although Vodafone doesn't say so, the package is a way of adding value to the company's broadband plans without giving away any of the crown jewels that can be found in more expensive plans based on Sky TV content. It also acts as a lure to these plans.

Vodafone's Ultimate Home Fibre and FibreX customers will get the service.

At the same time Vodafone has announced prices for its TV bundles. The Starter package costs $25 more than a basic broadband plan while the Sport and Entertainment packages each cost $55 a month more than basic broadband. The Premium package include both Sport and Entertainment for $95 more than a basic broadband package.

TeamTalk to resell Nokia kit

Teamtalk has signed a reseller agreement with Nokia which will see the company sell branded hardware, software and services. The two will also work together on selling in a number of areas including IoT and emergency services. As part of the deal TeamTalk will use Nokia's IP/MPLS backhaul network solution for its new digital radio system.

TeamTalk plans to move from being a network vendor to becoming a service provider for critical and resilient communications. The company will sell emergency service vehicle edge and private LTE technologies.

Spark's Qrious unit gets new boss, new focus

Nathalie Morris, currently GM Data Powered Marketing at Qrious will take over as CEO following the departure of David Leach. Leach replaced founding CEO Ed Hyde 18 months ago. The company says it has changed its strategy to focus more on customer intelligence and engagement.

Pom superfast broadband at 38 percent adoption

UK regulator Ofcom says almost four in ten homes now have ‘superfast broadband’. In the UK that means 30Mbps or faster. In the last year the uptake rate has climbed from 31 percent to 38 percent. In the UK super fast doesn't necessarily mean fibre. Just three percent of homes and businesses have fibre.

Curran calls for AI ethics framework

Communications minister Clare Curran wants to see an ethical framework and plan for how New Zealand will deal with artificial intelligence. Speaking at the launch of a report on the sector she says: "There are economic opportunities but also some pressing risks and ethical challenges with AI and New Zealand is lagging behind comparable countries in its work in these areas."