From Ezilon.com
New Zealand ISPs band together to press demands
By (Broadband Business Forecast via NewsEdge)
Aug 11, 2005, 07:24
(Broadband Business Forecast via NewsEdge) A group of 22 New Zealand ISPs have banded together, under the name Internet Service Providers Association of New Zealand (ISPANZ), in order to press demands ranging from local-loop unbundling to lower pricing and faster wholesale broadband speeds.
The target of the group clearly is Telecom New Zealand, which provides the backbone and sets the wholesale rules for the ISPs as well as offering its own Internet service to end users.
"We intend to lobby the government and the Commerce Commission to make the necessary legislative changes to improve the current UBS wholesale offering from telecom, including lower pricing, faster download and upload speeds, and retail parity for provisioning and service levels," said David Diprose, manager of industry and regulatory affairs at ISP Ihug, one of those forming the group, in a prepared statement. Diprose has been named ISPANZ spokesman.
"New Zealand's broadband market is suffering from a lack of true competition because current UBS resellers are faced with low margins and a very limited ability to differentiate between broadband products," Diprose argues.
ISPANZ in particular blames the wholesale broadband offerings from Telecom New Zealand with being in large part responsible for the country's status as Number 22 in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ranking of broadband penetration per 100 inhabitants.
© 2005 Broadband Business Forecasts
© 2005 Dialog, a Thomson business. All rights reserved
© Copyright 2004 by YourSITE.com