KEY POINTS:
The Commerce Commission has released draft terms and prices for backhaul services, the final link connecting competitors to Telecom's local loop and bitstream services.
The backhaul services support the unbundled copper local loop (UCLL) landline and unbundled bitstream (UBA) broadband services, allowing competitors to access transmission capacity between Telecom's local exchanges or data switches and their networks.
"This is another important factor in improving competition in broadband telecommunications markets" said Telecommunications Commissioner Ross Patterson.
Having backhaul for the UCLL and UBA Services available will allow companies to offer broadband services to their customers without having to build their own networks to their customers.
Companies can instead use Telecom's network and pay Telecom a cost-based price for the service.
Draft prices for the UCLL backhaul service range from $1811 for a monthly rental of a 100 megabit per second primary link in a major centre, to $10,196 for a 1 gigabit per second link in an "other" band, outside major and secondary centres.
The commission proposed a new connection charge of $8200 per connection.
For the UBA backhaul service, monthly rental ranged from $4778 for a 50Mbps service to $17,200 for 1Gbps. The proposed new connection charge ranged from $6940 to $12,674.
The commission is requesting more information from the industry, and will consult before issuing final determinations, expected to be in June 2008.
Backhaul costs were the last key component in determining what services Telecom's competitors could offer.
The commission has previously released its determinations on terms for competitors to access Telecom's UBA and UCLL, and the conditions for housing competitors' equipment in Telecom exchanges in order to access the unbundled local loop.
- NZPA
