KEY POINTS:
The telecommunications industry is weighing up who will drive National's $1.5 billion state backing for a fibre optic rollout to take super-fast broadband speeds direct to many New Zealand homes.
Veteran National politician Maurice Williamson and party president newcomer Steven Joyce have been mentioned. So too have high-flying Cabinet hopefuls Jonathan Coleman and Craig Foss.
Prime Minister-elect John Key has yet to decide how the industry and the information technology sector as a whole will be administered.
Change looks likely with communications technology combined with broadcasting.
Williamson was Minister of Communications in the 1990s and was seen as sympathetic to Telecom.
Coleman has held the broadcasting spokesmanship. He is popular with the radio and television industry, thoughtful and regarded as a high flier in the Key Government.
A combined broadcasting telecommunications portfolio has also been suggested for Joyce, the former radio executive with no parliamentary experience who is expected to be catapulted into Cabinet.
Tukituki MP Foss has been mentioned for a telecommunications role although is said to have been a sceptic when Williamson was promoting the fibre optic rollout.
Opinions on the rollout plan are mixed. It will help speeds but some question whether it is an efficient use of money.
Consumer group TUANZ said the project is necessary to push ahead super-fast broadband. The proposal, which links a $1.5 billion taxpayer fund to a joint venture with the private sector that will deliver $3 billion, was announced by National in April.
National has promoted the scheme, similar to the proposal released last year by David Skilling of the New Zealand Institute, as a key part of its policy to accelerate fibre optic cables to homes. Critics say that as it stands the fibre optic proposal is unfocused and may not increase productivity.
They argue the proposal may be a big boost for Telecom and Shareholders Association chairman Bruce Sheppard has indicated the scheme - if it goes ahead - might add 75c to Telecom's share price. Shares closed yesterday at $2.41, up 15c.
Telcos approached yesterday said that Key had repeated the policy several times during the election campaign, and other National MP's had also been positive.
