Telcos competition issues under spotlight

By RICHARD BRADDELL

WELLINGTON - Interconnection and local loop unbundling top the list of a host of competition issues to be addressed in the Government's telecommunications inquiry.

In what promises to be an exhaustive review of the market, the issues paper released yesterday by the three-person inquiry panel seeks comment on all the usual friction points - which now include the 0867 internet access row - as well as less-publicised issues such as the sharing of cellular towers with new entrants.

The inquiry is chaired by former Fletcher Challenge chief executive Hugh Fletcher, with assistance from Chapman Tripp competition lawyer Cathie Harrison and the deputy chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Allan Asher.

Detailed submissions are due on May 12, public hearings will begin in August and a final report to the Minister of Communications, Paul Swain, is due on September 29. While Mr Swain said this week that he would expect appropriate legislative responses by the end of the year, competition lawyers said that any law changes would be unlikely to come into effect much sooner than the middle of next year.

That would be too late to have a material impact on the 0867 dispute, which the issues paper noted had been considered "anti-competitive by parties such as Clear because it denied them interconnection revenue and disrupted their customers by requiring a number change."

While 0867 is a factor in sluggish growth for some internet providers, Telecom's Xtra has romped away, adding more than 10,000 customers a month and with 250,000 on board now has more than half the market.