Telstraclear chalks up second win against Telecom

Douglas Webb

TelstraClear chalked up its second win against dominant telco Telecom in a month today, with the Commerce Commission ruling in its favour over Internet bitstream access.

The competition watchdog ruled that Telecom must provide nationwide bitstream access to TelstraClear with the maximum downstream speed technically available (currently 7.6Mbps) and an upstream speed of 128kbps, at a price of $27.87 per month, plus GST.

Bitstream is an input for providing broadband Internet access to consumers on Telecom's copper wire local access network.

Today's move means TelstraClear can combine bitstream with its own transmission and ISP (Internet Service Provider) services to create broadband services for its customers.

"This decision gives TelstraClear the ability to compete and innovate in supplying broadband services across New Zealand," telecommunications commissioner Douglas Webb said.

"TelstraClear will be able to differentiate its services from Telecom's broadband services. The result will be more choice and greater competition."

It is the second score for TelstraClear against Telecom this month.

Two weeks ago, it was granted access to Telecom's wholesale business services, including Private Office Networking, One Office and Connect Anywhere (Remote Office) services, Message Connect and Additional/Enhanced Directory listing services.

I t has been a long time coming, however, with TelstraClear lodging its application for bitstream in November last year.

Telecom had argued that allowing TelstraClear to provide high-speed bitstream risks degrading the quality of broadband services, particularly services to rural customers.

The commission today accepted that was a risk, but noted that Telecom itself currently provided a significant number of high-speed services to retail customers and the risk would "in principle be the same whether a high-speed service is provided by Telecom or TelstraClear".

The commission concluded that any risk of service degradation was outweighed by the benefits that high-speed services would deliver to users.

- NZPA