The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
- ensuring that the investment model captures the innovation and expertise of the private sector. "In doing that, we want to ensure that fibre solutions are rolled out with a view to New Zealand's economic future and not with a view to protecting the legacy assets of New Zealand's economic past."
Thirdly, he seems to me more aware of the pitfalls ahead, pitfalls which the ALP is only now discovering as Telstra and the rest of the industry ramp up their rhetoric on communications minister Stephen Conroy's next generation broadband plans.
"Delivering on these five principles will require a carefully thought-through and negotiated investment and regulatory mode," Key said. "National will conduct these negotiations in our first year of government. As Prime Minister, I intend to take a leading role in them...In doing so, I will be wary of the kind of shadow-boxing that has all too often typified the relationship between government and the telecommunications industry. I won't put up with game-playing. If that means knocking some metaphoric heads together, then that is what I will do.
That's giving a whole year just to setting the ground rules - rules which in Australia will be developed on the fly with potential bidder(s).
Key also said: "We will also work with local government to ensure it is doing everything it can to facilitate the roll-out of the fibre network. We will be clear, for example, that future road construction undertaken by local government will have to take the Government's fibre objectives into account." Well, he does not have a bunch of states to contend with like the Australian Government which in its national broadband plans seems to have done nothing to factor in either the broadband network demands or broadband network initiatives of state governments.
Key did not acknowledge it but many of his proposals - and his claimed estimates of the economic benefits of FTTH - come from The New Zealand Institute, a privately funded think-tank that is "committed to generating new and creative debate, ideas, and solutions that contribute to building a better and more prosperous New Zealand for all New Zealanders."
While not all agree with all aspects of its recommendations, it represents a far more detailed examination of the issues and possible solutions then anything undertaken in Australia in recent years.
If the Nationals do gain power at the next New Zealand election, in about six months time, it will be interesting to see how Key is able to deliver on his promises of "knocking metaphoric heads together". Never very easy when one of those belongs to a metaphoric six hundred pound gorilla, as Australian governments have discovered.
But the New Zealand Nationals at least will be left a better legacy than the one the Howard Government left the Australian Labor Party: New Zealand Labour has managed to impose a decent operational separation regime on Telecom NZ.
David Bass
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