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Govt to scuttle cheaper ADSL?

Here in New Zealand, we have an agency called the Commerce Commission.

It is their role to examine the actions of commercial entities and balance the right of those entities to make a profit with the need to preserve competition and a fair deal for consumers in the marketplace.

In theory, this agency ought to operate under the umbrella of, but out side the direct control of, government -- in much the same way our courts do.

This week, the CC has proposed that the price charged for the copper network presently owned and administered by Chorus is too high and that cuts ought to be made. This is the copper network that presently delivers ADSL broadband to huge swathes of the population.

If the price of unbundled bitstream access (UBA - broadband by copper) is cut by the level the CC recommends, it will reduce Chorus's revenues by around $150m - but consumers would be better off to the tune of $12 a month.

However, John Key has mooted the prospect of changing the law to prevent the CC from forcing such a price-cut.

This is not good - not good at all!

All Kiwis should be gravely concerned at this worrying admission that this government intends to start meddling in the workings of agencies which ought to be totally independent of political pressure.

It is a very short step from having government over-ride (by way of special legislation) the decisions of the Commerce Commission, to having them overturn rulings of our courts - when it suits them to do so.

I am always reluctant to role out the word fascism - but it's looking very much like this could shape up to be an excellent example of that nasty approach to governance.

If government is free to overturn the ruling of "independent" bodies if and when it choses then it makes a mockery of the claim that they are indeed independent. They effectively become a sock-puppet to the whims of their political masters and therefore utterly ineffective -- a giant waste of taxpayers' money.

So let's look for a moment at why any government would want to effectively nix a move by its own independent commission. Why would it not want a better deal for consumers, especially when we're talking about something that the government itself has acknowledged is crucial for the future of the nation -- internet access.

It becomes difficult to fathom the reasons but maybe the most obvious one is that this government already has a huge investment in the UFB fibre-based broadband network. If the conventional copper-based ADSL gets cheaper then the incentive to shift to fibre is reduced -- potentially leaving our political masters with something of a white-elephant on their hands.

This becomes particularly true if we sell our souls to the devil over the TPP and access to affordable online media dries up due to protectionism on the part of the various music and movie publishing groups. If there are no movies -- there's no real need for UFB -- is there?

Now some readers may think that I'm just being my usual bolshy-self but if you take a look at the comments on this story you'll see that my thoughts and concerns are shared by many others.

What do readers think?

Does Key's hint at the use of legislation to overturn a CC finding smack of a dangerous shift towards government interfering in the actions of its so-called independent commissions?

Is this an attempt to introduce protectionism on the side of the UFB? Does that make a mockery of this government's claim that it supports free-market principles?

What has this government given away (behind closed doors) in TPP negotiations that might have devalued the new UFB by reducing the need for an ultra-fast broadband network?

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