No room, Telecom tells rivals

Telecom has told its competitors it has power supply problems and little or no room for extra equipment in its main exchanges as it begins opening its network to other internet providers.

The Government said in May that it would force Telecom to open its network to competitors - known as local loop unbundling.

For this to take place, the competitors need to be able to install their own equipment in Telecom's exchanges.

A list obtained by the Business Herald says Telecom's top 50 exchanges have limited space.

It says it has no space in the equipment rooms of the Wellington and Courtenay Place (central Wellington) exchanges, and space is "very tight" in 19 other centres including Mayoral Drive (Auckland), Mt Albert, Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Nelson, Blenheim and Christchurch.

And it says power supply is extremely low in the exchanges - 33 of them do not have a back-up if the main electricity source fails.

Telecom sent the list to its competitors after the first meeting of a working group it set up to develop technical guidelines and prepare operations for local loop unbundling, unbundled bitstream and naked digital subscriber line broadband services.

Internet companies have expressed concern that Telecom may place technical barriers in the way of competitors wanting access to the network.

Orcon regulatory manager Scott Bartlett said it was positive that Telecom was providing information competitors had not seen, but he was wary about its control of the information.

"There needs to be site inspections by an independent arbitrator."

He hoped Telecom would not play the games that British Telecom did - creating technical problems - which made it difficult for competitors to gain access to its network.

The strategy and operations manager of the small internet provider Iconz, Jenny Longhurst, said Telecom was being open, but it was not providing any answers to the problems.

Telecom's head of wholesale technology, Mark Corbett, said the list had been given to competitors to start negotiations in the working groups and would help to provide solutions.

"There is plenty of space in the exchanges, but it is a question of whether it is appropriate for the equipment, which needs proper air-conditioning and protection from any minor seismic issue."

Corbett said space was tight and there were more power issues in high-growth areas such as Auckland.

Competitors could place equipment in buildings next to exchanges with limited space - a common unbundling practice overseas.

Telecom was looking at bringing in an independent auditor to the exchanges.

The chief executive of the internet company ihug, Mark Rushworth, said he was convinced that there was space available in Telecom's exchanges - it just had to find it.

Number please

* Telecom has 800 exchanges.

* They vary in size from small ones in a single room to large buildings of several floors.

* The exchanges house phone switches and DSLAMS that deliver broadband.

* Every home and business broadband user is connected by copper wire to a DSLAM in an exchange.