Stay at home and get rich, Aussie tells Telecom

By PETER GRIFFIN

New Zealand's biggest listed company, Telecom, would do better to leave Australia alone and concentrate on business at home, says an Australian analyst.

In a report entitled 2002 Telecommunications and Information Highways in New Zealand, being issued today, Sydney telecoms analyst Paul Budde says regulatory uncertainty will continue next year as the telecommunications commissioner and a revamped Telecommunications Bill take effect.

But the report questioned Telecom and Telstra's moves to spend heavily in each other's home markets.

Mr Budde said although Telecom was one of the the leanest incumbent carriers in the world, it lacked a level of leadership that allowed it to profit from the forefront position.

And it was guilty of "overeating overseas" through its acquisition of AAPT and its ditched plans to build a CDMA mobile network in Australia.

"The clear message is, if you want to be successful at the moment, stay in your home market," Mr Budde said.

New Zealand's internet market was one of the most developed in the world, but Telecom had so far been slow to seize the advantage.

The local market offered great opportunities, with data and broadband services expected to generate 90 per cent of telecom operators' revenue by 2010.

"It's easier to blow your money in Australia than spend it providing broadband access to New Zealanders," Mr Budde said.

Next year would be a determining year for Telecom's new CDMA network and the success of mobile applications that would eventually lead mobile customers to third generation services.

"It will be an interesting test of Kiwis' interest in high-speed mobile data services. nte "So far no country apart from Japan has embraced these new services in a big way."