Between the lines: Choice of telco services our right

My colleague was in an angry mood. He had heard that Telecom was considering making its unprofitable rural telecommunications services contestable.

Outraged by the prospect that Telecom might casually flick off its responsibility to deliver telecommunications to farmers, he wanted to protest - by handing all his telco needs to another company.

I told him that in Auckland he did not really have a choice. Sure he could pass his mobile business to Vodafone, give his tolls business to any number of other companies and change to a different internet provider. But when it comes to the landline to his home, there is only one option - Telecom.

In some parts of Wellington he would be able to switch to a Telstra-Saturn wire. He could also do away with his landline altogether - common in countries like Finland where more than 70 per cent of the population have a mobile phone but almost unheard of here because the airtime costs would burn too large a hole in the family budget.

Unimpressed, my colleague departed, still fuming.

But it need not be that way. The New Zealand consumer could have real telecommunications choice - possibly within nine months - if only the Government would act.

The issue - known in telco lingo as "unbundling the local loop" - is the hot potato of the current Telecommunications Inquiry.

What it means is allowing competing telcos to literally seize the copper wire from your home at your local exchange, connect it to their network and provide you with their local, tolls and possibly internet services. With local loop unbundling, consumers choose who to give their wire to.

Not that the wire is really theirs to give. The copper belongs to Telecom, which if it is forced to unbundle its "last mile" monopoly gets recompense from the competing telco for the loss of monthly line rentals, plus something extra for maintenance of the line.

So why do we want it? Because choice is a fundamental consumer right. And unbundled wire will give competition for fast, big bandwidth internet access to our homes - at present controlled by Telecom and far too expensive.

But while others, such as Australia, United States and the European Union, are moving as fast as they can on local loop unbundling, the Telecommunications Inquiry here is sitting on the fence.

Its draft report to the Government advises that there is no need to rush. That in three to five years' time we will have choice thanks to wireless alternatives under construction and Telstra-Saturn's roll-out plans.

In the information age, three to five years' delay equals 21 to 35 years at internet pace. To ensure New Zealand does not remain in the Dark Ages, and that more people can start using the net at high speed, the Government needs to wake up.