Minister to help resolve communications dispute

By PETER GRIFFIN

Communications Minister Paul Swain is to intervene in a network dispute between Telecom and TelstraClear that has the potential to block calls from TelstraClear customers dialling emergency services.

But a feud between the two telcos over lapsed contracts, network access and unpaid bills will be dealt with by the Telecommunications Commissioner when he takes office next month.

"Interconnect has been the big sticking point in this industry for years, but the commissioner will have the ability to resolve this once and for all," Mr Swain said.

He will contact Telecom and TelstraClear today to ensure the 111 calling issue is resolved, after a TelstraClear customer from Christchurch was unable to get through dialling 111.

Telecom yesterday produced documents to show it had supplied five capacity links to TelstraClear in mid-December for dedicated 111 calling, but said two months on, TelstraClear was yet to commission them.

TelstraClear's head of business development and regulatory affairs, Kevin Millar, said last night that the links were being activated immediately, but he believed they would provide only a temporary solution and that TelstraClear still could not guarantee emergency calls routed over them would get through.

A wider dispute relating to much-needed capacity for the rest of TelstraClear's network is likely to remain unresolved regardless of the minister's involvement.

Telecom's chief operating officer Simon Moutter said TelstraClear appeared to be expecting Telecom to carry over an interconnect agreement it had with Clear, which lapsed last September.

Another interconnect deal, with TelstraSaturn, also expired last month. But Telecom says the $35 million interconnection deal with Clear included several one-off items, and was never intended to be extended.

"There's no contract with TelstraClear at all, that's interconnects worth hundreds of millions of dollars," Mr Moutter said.

That raises the prospect of Telecom pulling the plug on services to its smaller rival altogether - a potentially disastrous scenario for TelstraClear which has around 300,000 customers and New Zealand businesses.

Mr Moutter said that was not Telecom's plan, but it remains a thorn in the side of negotiations between the two companies.

As the dispute drags on, TelstraClear is paying Telecom for services delivered, but not on mutually agreed terms.

"We're being paid something, but it's well short of what we're supposed to be paid. [TelstraClear] is working out their own bills and deciding what they should pay," Mr Moutter said. He said TelstraClear owed Telecom $17.8 million in unpaid bills.

Mr Millar said TelstraClear was dissatisfied with the accuracy of Telecom's billing and paid what it believed was owed.

Although a date with the telecommunications commissioner looks inevitable, with relations between TelstraClear and Telecom at a low ebb, both carriers are still determined to resolve their issues on a commercial basis.