Peter Nowak: We won't all be fooled again

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss," sang The Who in the aptly titled Won't Get Fooled Again,

The rock anthem seems to sum up what's happening at Telecom.

Theresa Gattung will remain in charge and despite all sorts of flourishes, absolutely nothing has changed. The problem is that some people are getting fooled again.

Telecommunications lobby groups, including Tuanz and InternetNZ, seem to have accepted Gattung's proclamations that Telecom is a different beast, that it will no longer fight legalistic battles or obstruct competition. The company yesterday announced it would do what everyone had been asking for - it would voluntarily split itself into separate wholesale and retail operations.

Everyone, including Communications Minister David Cunliffe, is optimistic that the company is sincere in its intentions. But the new message doesn't ring true.

Consider the fact that mobile phones have been conveniently left out of this proposed operational split. Yesterday's announcement was thin on detail but heavy on the new spirit and philosophy. So why is Telecom not applying those same principles to mobile phones?

"If mobile ends up having a whole suite of regulated services, then we'll look and say 'well what is the best way to support that?' But today we're getting on with the obvious imperative [of fixed-line services]," Gattung said.

In other words, Telecom won't act to fix New Zealand's mobile phone problems until regulation forces it to. That sounds just like the old Telecom.

Then there's the timing of the announcement. Gattung said the move - made a day after the Government introduced its regulatory bill - was a coincidence, and that believing otherwise was subscribing to a conspiracy theory.

Perhaps, but Gattung also pleaded ignorance of clause 59 of the bill (which states that Telecom can avoid regulation with a voluntary undertaking such as this split). If Gattung has not actually read - in its entirety - a bill that spells out the future of her company, then that in itself seems like a good reason for her to lose her job. So, we have a commercial move timed with a regulatory action, followed by a plea of coincidence and ignorance. Sounds like the old Telecom.

In her infamous March speech to analysts - where she declared that telcos had used confusion as their chief marketing tool - Gattung also said Telecom had fallen into a trap where everything it said was being treated like a Tui billboard (the reaction being: yeah right).

She couldn't have been more correct, and that is why she must go. She has lost credibility, and everything she says - and Telecom by extension - runs the risk of netting the reaction: yeah right.

Not everyone will be fooled again.