All about Telecom

Four recent Telecom issues, so will talk about them all in the one post.

First they have a new data roaming deal.

The new pricing gives customers 100 megabytes (MB) of mobile data for $100 while roaming overseas in these locations that’s the equivalent of $1/MB.

Customers will be charged $8.00/MB for the first 12.5MB and a remaining 87.5MB worth of data for the rest of their billing month will be free.

A year ago we were all paying $30/MB for roaming data, so this is a good step in the right direction.

If you are on a big trip and will use close to 100 MB this is a damn good deal. If you will only use 10 MB or so, then not so great.

Vodafone charge $5/MB in Australia and $10/MB elsewhere (off memory). So if you plan to use more than 20 MB in Australia Telecom are better. And for US and UK they are cheaper at any rate.

My personal price point is around $1 – $2/MB. I will grudgingly pay that for international data for my mobile devices.

Secondly Stuff reports on the UFB tender:

Telecom will today step up its campaign to become the Government’s broadband partner, releasing a poll on its website that says more Kiwis would prefer its network arm Chorus got the job of building the ultrafast broadband network than electricity lines companies headed by Vector. …

UMR said 48 per cent of those polled would prefer to see Telecom broken up and have “an independent, stand-alone Chorus extend the existing fibre network”, while 28 per cent favoured the Government investing in a new network rolled out by electricity lines companies led by Vector.

Vector spokeswoman Philippa White responded: “Essentially the decision as to who will partner with the Government for the UFB build sits with Crown Fibre Holdings”.

The poll is interesting but to some degree irrelevant. Because it ignores the most important factor – cost.

If the Regional Fibre Group/Vector and Telecom/Chorus both say “Yes we can do fibre to the home to 75% of NZ if the Crown invests $1.5b”, then my view is you would absolutely go with Telecom/Chorus due to their existing infrastructure.

If the two bidders are even “close” to each other – ie Chorus says we can do it for $1.7b and Vector/RFG for $1.5b, then you’d probably still go with Telecom/Chorus – just to avoid the possibility of Telecom using the copper network to make the fibre network unprofitable by undercutting them.

But what the poll ignores, is that there may be a large difference between the two bids. If Vector/RFG are saying we can do 75% in 10 years for $1.5b and Telecom/Chorus are saying we can do 75% but need $2.4b to do it within 10 years, then one goes with Vector (in my opinion). And this scenario is not impossible. The lines companies already have infrastructure assets and resource consents which may allow them to do the job far cheaper than even a structurally separated Chorus.

So at the end of the day it is not a popularity contest between Telecom and Vector. The actual commercial details of their bids are vital.

Thirdly, Telecom have put together a one stop shop website about UFB and their bid. I’ve already read most of the site – lots of useful info there.

Finally, we have an announcement from Telecom and Vodafone about a joint bid for rural broadband:

Telecom and Vodafone have announced they have made a joint bid for the Government’s $300 million rural broadband initiative, bids for which are due in today.

Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds said the solution would New Zealand’s two largest telecommunications providers “combining their extensive resources and skills to bring the benefits of high speed broadband to rural communities as quickly as possible”.

One goal of the rural broadband initiative is to ensure 93 per cent of New Zealand’s 900 rural schools have access to 100 megabit per second broadband, with the rest getting a 10Mbps service.

The other goal is that 80 per cent of rural New Zealanders get a 5Mbps service to their homes, with the rest able to access broadband with a speed of at least 1Mbps.

Telecom said the joint solution would involve extending Telecom’s existing fibre infrastructure to key rural points of presence, including schools and hospitals, and expanding Vodafone’s wireless infrastructure “that harnesses the power of this fibre to deliver high speed broadband services wirelessly”.

Telecom said any service provider would be able toretail services over the new infrastructure. “This means that rural customers will have not only faster data services but also a much wider choice of technologies and suppliers for these services.”

Telecom would be responsible for building fibre to schools and hospitals, cellsites and rural exchanges and cabinets.

Vodafone would be responsible for the design and build of “open access tower infrastructure” that Vodafone and Telecom XT would share, “as indeed could any other wireless service provider who wishes to do so”.

I’m very supportive of this. I think open access cellphone towers are where the future is. It makes a lot of sense economically, and from a resource consent point of view, to share this infrastructure.

Once we do have announcements on who will be the local (or national) fibre companies, there could well be a role for them in providing future cellphone towers, which Telecom, Vodafone, 2 degrees etc could all put gear on. The fibre company of course would provide high capacity backhaul. There are some technical challenges around size of towers and having all the gear high enough to get a good signal, but these are workable.

So good to see Telecom and Vodafone moving in this direction.