muppet: Christ I worked there (at TClear) for 5 years and I have no idea who "Tex" is. Someone enlighten me?

patdude123: Isnt it funny that the govt has been harping on about fostering greater competition in broadband and in the mobile space yet it their incompetence that saw them allowing ALL the available 900Mhz spectrum to fall into one players hands....
 

sbiddle:

patdude123: Isnt it funny that the govt has been harping on about fostering greater competition in broadband and in the mobile space yet it their incompetence that saw them allowing ALL the available 900Mhz spectrum to fall into one players hands....
 

Hmm.. Telecom own all the 800MHz spectrum and I don't hear of anybody complaining.

If you had followed the history of Vodafone acquiring their 900MHz spectrum you will see that at various times Vodafone had to apply to the Commerce Commission for applications to go ahead. When they acquired the last crown owned 900MHz band there were no major objections to this from any competitors (including Econet) against this - probably because Tex already had cheaply acquired Maori 3G spectrum and saw GSM as a dinosaur and 3G as the future. At that stage nobody really foresaw how hopeless 2100MHz 3G networks would actually be and 900MHz UMTS networks were something that was really only being thought about by the Vodafone folks at Newbury who actually had great hindsight for once.

Things are going to get very interesting in a few years anyway when the existing management rights come up for renewal for 800MHz and 900MHz bands.

antoniosk:

Completely agree. and 3G UMTS is starting to operate in 850mhz which propagates so nicely....