By PAUL BRISLEN
Telecom has made significant changes to its proposed broadband wholesale plan, but has retained its controversial "churn fee".
The "unbundled bitstream service" comes in response to the Telecommunications Commissioner's call for a regulated broadband service.
The wholesale plan covers only one product, an entry-level 256kbps service.
But Telecom plans to introduce
a 512kbps service early next year.
Telecom has been talking to most New Zealand internet service providers since early June.
Its wholesale manager for strategy and planning, Martin Butler, said the company had heeded the issues raised by providers.
"We've taken on board some of the things they've said, and in turn, they've listened to some of the things we've said."
The changes to the proposed plan include a three-tier pricing structure for user numbers, and major changes to the pricing for backhaul services, connecting the providers with Telecom's network.
Telecom will also match internet providers' marketing budgets up to $15,000, as long as they are advertising a product using the new wholesale service and are adding between 150 and 300 new connections a month.
But the churn fee - which penalises providers who acquire existing broadband users - remains, although it has been reduced.
Butler says that although all providers publicly oppose the fee, they also realise that it is designed to increase the market, "and that's a good thing".
Providers will be billed $101.75 for every residential customer they take from another provider and $105.50 for every business customer.
Telecom had proposed a fee of $150 a customer.
The charge will be levied against any provider taking existing customers - including Telecom's own provider, Xtra.
Telecom will now give the providers details of the final offer.
Butler said that while the offer was more or less set in stone, there was some room for negotiation.
"If there are issues we've not thought about, such as migration, then we're absolutely prepared to work it through."
Once the new wholesale plan is in place, Telecom will phase out its partnering programme, under which it billed its part of the service to all customers.
Instead, the providers will handle all billing with the customers and will "own" that relationship.
Telecom has said that it wants to have 250,000 broadband customers by the end of next year.
The wholesale market is expected to deliver up to 30 per cent of that total.
It now has about 100,000 broadband residential customers.
