KEY POINTS:
A passion for complex economic models has lured a high-flying commercial lawyer back to take over one of the toughest telecommunications jobs - sorting out disagreements between squabbling telco companies.
New Telecommunications Commissioner Ross Patterson said there was nothing dull about unravelling the complexities of competitive markets.
"Markets are amazing things - they're wonderful. The way that markets work and the players work and the dynamics of it all is very, very interesting."
Patterson was shoulder tapped for the Telecommunications Commissioner position, which sees him move from his Sydney-based competition and regulatory law job back to New Zealand.
"It was a new challenge. I think you need challenges every five or 10 years to keep you really galvanised," Patterson said.
"The challenges that we're facing, I think, the country with telecommunications and the role of the commissioner in that general area were too good an opportunity to let pass by."
Patterson replaces Douglas Webb, who became New Zealand's first Telecommunications Commissioner in 2002.
He will be responsible for ensuring that the Government reforms of last year translate into a competitive telecommunications market. Patterson will have to sift through claim and counter-claim from the various telcos who are each trying to persuade the regulator to improve their position in the market.
After only four days officially in the job he jokingly described himself as "a veteran".
The last time Patterson worked in New Zealand he was a partner at Rudd Watts and Stone in Auckland, specialising in competition law.
During the early 90s, Patterson spent four to five years advising mobile company Bell South and completing a doctorate in commercial law at Auckland University.
"Surprisingly enough things like number portability that were almost finalised when I left, 10 years later have only just been finalised."
An opportunity to head up the Minter Ellison Rudd Watts legal group's Australian national competition and regulatory practice saw Patterson move to Sydney a decade ago.
Having followed earlier industry reforms Patterson admits to having been largely unaware of last year's Telecommunications Amendment Act, which legislates for the operational separation of Telecom's business and beefs up the role of the commissioner, until he was talking to Government officials about the job.
"To see the regime that had been introduced and the role that was developed for the Telecommunications Commissioner was pretty exciting."
Patterson said under the previous telecommunications regime the commissioner role was reactive, dealing only with issues as they were brought to the commission by industry players.
Now the commission instigates regulated telecommunication services in a proactive way, he said.
"From my perspective a much more influential and therefore challenging and exciting role," Patterson said. "Had it been the old regime I wouldn't have been interested.
"For me it's making a difference that's of benefit to a country rather than of benefit to individual clients, which is what I've been doing up till now."
He said the commission's view to the long-term interests of users and the promotion of competition would often put it at odds with the interests of individual telecommunications companies.
"And that's a good thing, not a bad thing."
Patterson said the way to manage that relationship was to be open, transparent, accessible and listen to the industry.
He said the New Zealand telecommunications industry was playing catch-up with the rest of the world but the new regime was more of a "mainstream approach" to telecommunications regulation.
