Broadband promoters angry

By ADAM GIFFORD

Regional broadband promoters are angry at Broadcast Communications (BCL) for legal moves last week against their technology partner Walker Wireless - an action they say undermines the Government's provincial broadband extension (Probe) strategy.

Southland broadband project head Steve Canny, who chairs the Probe regional broadband group, described BCL's seeking of a judicial review of Walker Wireless registered radio frequency licences as "bizarre".

"You have a Government agency potentially acting in a manner which disrupts the achievement of the Government's major economic development and community objectives regarding the knowledge economy and high-speed internet access," Canny said.

The judicial review is expected to add hundreds of thousands of dollars to Walker's start-up costs and could delay the regional rollouts in Southland, Wairarapa and Northland.

Canny said the regions considered BCL had a major strategic role in broadband, particularly in supplying national backbone and backhaul capacity.

"The reality is BCL is regarded as a difficult organisation to engage with and a lot of new entry service providers in New Zealand are looking at ways they can develop networks which don't touch the BCL network - which is a shame."

Far North Development Trust chairman Chris Mathews said BCL's action was against the spirit of the Radiocommunications Act and the broadband initiative.

"I cannot understand why BCL is not acting in collaboration with its competitors, putting its protocols on the table - that is how things are supposed to be done," Mathews said.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Ernie Newman said BCL's tactic was not the sort of behaviour expected of a state-owned enterprise: "It is more the kind of thing hardened incumbent telecommunications companies around the world have done.

"New Zealand is behind in the broadband stakes anyway and the last thing we need is legal or bureaucratic hurdles put in the way of people trying to do something ...

"Maybe, having given TVNZ a charter, the Government should give BCL a charter - it is state owned, it claims to be open, but it appears to be acting in a way calculated to slow down broadband services," he said.

Shareholding minister Steve Maharey again refused to speak to the Herald, saying it was an "operational matter" for the BCL board. Information Technology Minister Paul Swain also ducked for cover even though the actions threaten to undermine his favoured broadband policies.

Walker Wireless chairman Rod Inglis said the company would ask the High Court to strike out BCL's action on the grounds it is "frivolous and vexatious". "It is the behaviour of an old-fashioned monopolist which doesn't like the idea of competition.

"The main point is under the new regulatory regime, parties should co-operate and work together to resolve issues."

According to BCL's statement of claim and supporting affidavits, its concern is not that Walker Wireless' transmissions will overlap into its spectrum, but that the broadband wireless access receivers BCL has chosen can "listen in" to Walker's spectrum. BCL claims this is a problem for Walker, because BCL registered its licences first.

But Inglis said the order in which licences were registered was only one of several factors to be considered in any arbitration.

There could also be questions raised of good faith. Walker Wireless networks manager Andrew McPherson said the company approached BCL after it won its spectrum, to discuss boundary issues.

"After three or four meetings at which we laid out the solution we were proposing, they went off and registered all these licences," McPherson said.

"Then, after another couple of meetings they came back and said, 'We don't need to talk any more, our licences have priority so you must fit in with us'."

BCL chief executive Geoff Lawson refused to comment because the matter was before the court.

At a timetable session in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, BCL's lawyer, Jim Farmer, QC, asked for the matter to be fast tracked.

Walker Wireless lawyer Sarah Katz, of Buddle Finlay, objected, on the grounds it was a complex and technical matter.

Justice Baragwanath gave Walker Wireless until May 19 to file its statement of defence. It must also lodge any motion to strike out by that date.

Wellington radio engineer Robert Vernal is second defendant and the Registrar of Radio Frequencies at the Ministry of Economic Development, third defendant.