Watchdog tweaks telco constraint criteria

The Commerce Commission has published revised draft criteria to define when an alternative backhaul operator is considered to be a competitive constraint on Telecom.

Backhaul is the final link connecting competitors to Telecom's networks, so those competitors can provide communication services such as voice and broadband to households, without having to replicate Telecom's network.

After releasing a draft report on the unbundled copper local loop (UCLL) backhaul service in August, the commission yesterday issued the revised draft, taking into account submissions and other information.

The commission yesterday said it had altered the assessment criteria which determined when alternative backhaul operators were considered to be a competitive constraint on Telecom. Any alternative backhaul operator within 1-2km of a Telecom exchange would be considered a competitive constraint on Telecom unless the backhaul operator had publicly stated it did not intend to connect to the exchange, the commission said.

"The change more appropriately reflected the extent to which Telecom was constrained in backhaul markets," telecommunications commissioner Ross Patterson said.

Using the revised framework, the commission's revised draft review for the UCLL backhaul service concluded that Telecom faced competition from other providers of backhaul services on 111 out of 207 links.

For those links, the UCLL backhaul service was not available as a regulated service.

The commission said it had also issued a first review for the unbundled bitstream access (UBA) backhaul service which applied the same criteria and concluded that Telecom faced competition from other providers of backhaul services on 37 out of 92 links. For those links, the regulated UBA backhaul service was not available as regulated service.

The current reviews look at a number of UBA backhaul and UCLL backhaul routes and examine whether there is actual or potential competition to Telecom on those routes.

The commission said that where it found a route was competitive, it would not be subject to regulation. By contrast, routes where Telecom was found to face limited competition would be regulated.

Submissions on both draft reports should be made by October 7.

- NZPA