KEY POINTS:
Plans by National and Labour for New Zealand's fibre optic broadband future will go head to head today in what is expected to be a pivotal conference for the telecommunications industry, Tel.con9.
Labour will be promoting the idea of holding on to government and its broadband plans that continue the focus on rural and business customers for better broadband.
Against that is National promoting its ambitious but vaguely defined proposals for a $1.5 billion taxpayer contribution to a new fibre-optic infrastructure.
The debate will come to a head this morning with Communications Minister David Cunliffe and National spokesman Maurice Williamson speaking to the industry players.
Cunliffe, after years of delays, finally moved to regulate the country's dominant telco Telecom in 2006.
But his limited plans announced in the last Budget were criticised by the Telecommunications Users Association as lacking vision.
Williamson, meantime is still unpopular with big parts of the industry for his period as minister in the 1990s when he resisted regulation and allowed Telecom to maintain its anti-competitive practices.
Other key speakers include Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds - the British import heading New Zealand's biggest public company through the rigours of regulation.
Labour has complained that National's plans - if implemented - would maintain the dominance of Telecom but Reynolds insists he could work with either party.
Another speaker is Russell Stanners, the youthful chief executive for the New Zealand arm of Vodafone, the international phone company that is Telecom's biggest threat.
This year's conference is the first where the dominant player Telecom is on the back foot in the new telecommunications landscape and with the company under pressure, and with regulators such as the Commerce Commission holding more power in the market.
Apart from fibre-optic infrastructure and broadband the conference will be canvassing the big developments in the past year such as local loop unbundling - opening up Telecom exchanges to competitors - and cabinetisation - bringing fibre optic closer to the home to improve broadband speed.
The conference will be held today and tomorrow in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Auckland.
It will also be talking about plans by New Zealand Communications to develop New Zealand's third mass market mobile phone network, competing with Vodafone and Telecom.
The industry will also hear from Jo Tyndall who is heading a review into broadcasting regulations.
A ministry paper questions the need for a joint broadcasting and telecommunications commissioner to deal with the two converging markets.
