Briefs: Telecom N.Z. loses bitstream access case
December 20, 2005New Zealand regulators have ruled that Australia's TelstraClear must be granted access to Telecom New Zealand's wholesale bitstream service.
Telecom was mulling an appeal of Tuesday's ruling from the Commerce Commission, which determined that any risk of signal deterioration due to crowding on the copper-wire system was offset by the potential benefits to consumers through increased competition.
"TelstraClear will be able to differentiate its services from Telecom's broadband services. The result will be more choice and greater competition," said Telecommunications Commissioner Douglas Webb.
The agency also discounted Telecom's concerns by ruling that Telecom itself was contributing to the high level of capacity usage.
The ruling requires Telecom to supply TelstraClear with the maximum downstream speed available of 7.6 megabits per second and an upstream speed of 128,000 kilobits per second. The price was set at NZ$27.87 ($19.41) per month.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International
