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Yes, once again Telecom has moved to dodge the regulation bullet by offering sufficient concession to *just* avoid government action designed to reign in its monopoly abuse.

According to reports, this move consists of hiking the downstream rates to 3.5Mb/S and the upstream to 512Kb/S -- but is this really enough?

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Orcon, one of the ISPs that have been pushing hard for government moves to give Telecom a rocket, has come out to say that it would be happy with Telecom's offer and accepting it would mean we'd get faster internet by April 1. The alternative, they say, would be a long wait while the government and the telco engaged in a protracted and expensive legal battle -- while users were stuck at current speeds.

On the other side we have TUANZ who have come out pleading with ISPs not to be lured by Telecom's offer and continue to push for regulation.

TUANZ believes that the acceptance of such an offer would do little but push the whole issue of broadband speeds in NZ a little further out into the future.

Ernie Newman from TUANZ told RadioNZ this morning that 3.5Mb/S is already quite slow by world standards, with many countries now offering DSL speeds as high as 24Mb/S.

Well I have to say that I'm with Ernie on this one. If ISPs wimp out now and take the few small crumbs being offered we'll simply find ourselves in exactly the same situation next year...

Technology, and the world, will have moved on. Once again we'll be way down the OECD list in terms of our DSL speeds/prices, since everyone else will have moved on to faster, cheaper offerings. Telecom will (again) hold out as long as possible, until the threat of government action forces them to again make some minor concessions -- and so the cycle repeats.

Some would argue that there's nothing wrong with this -- after all, our DSL speeds will continue to rise and we'll still enjoy a market unfettered by government intervention. However, it does mean we'll always be on the back foot when compared to our OECD peers.

I'd like to think that we've never been closer to the government actually sorting out the Telecom local loop problem -- so let's not throw that away for the sake of a few beans.

It's time for ISPs (and government) to take a slightly longer-term perspective on this problem and deal with it once and for all -- instead of letting Telecom call the tune and watching ISPs and ministers do the dancing.

Remember -- so long as Telecom is providing the DSL hardware and network, they still have the ultimate control over what services can be used. For instance, who's to say that even if we go to 3.5Mb/S, Telecom won't decide to knee-cap VOIP through the Net if they see it eating into their toll revenues?

The only way to avoid this kind of monopoly abuse is to remove the monopoly.

Let's not act like trained dogs who'll jump and do tricks for any tiny scrap of food from our masters at Telecom.

What's your call? Should ISPs take the 3.5mB/S offer, thus be in a position to offer faster internet by April 1. Or should they hold out for regulation or unbundling and enjoy some real competition within the DSL marketplace?

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