This has popped up in other forums but I thought may be it is time for a bit of healthy debate. For those who have not read it, the strategy has one goal:

'New Zealand will be in the top quarter of the OECD for broadband uptake by 2010'

Digital Strategy

There is no doubt that we all want fast and cheap broadband but is regulation the right way to go? After all there are other technologies that will provide 'last mile' broadband such as WiMAX.

Rather than regulating and demanding that Telecom lower the price and increase the speed wouldn't it be better and more prudent to encourage investment in other technologies to reduce the reliance on and dominance of Telecom? This could be done with a seed fund and by allowing new market entrants to operate tax free for 2 to 3 years. Look at what tax rebates have done for the NZ film industry!

Remember years ago there were probably 30 odd ISP's before the industry consolidated. A number of these operators were small niche players that didn't need large customer numbers to survive.

Perhaps this is where broadband should go. There could be a whole cottage industry built around a number of providers each servicing a patch with wireless technology. After all TUANZ keep saying that comptetition will lower prices.

I just don't see that regulating Telecom will offer 'true' competition. After all there will be a set wholesale price and providers will just compete by ripping the b_lls out of the margin until no one makes any money. This is not good business.

Also, whilst it is noble of the government to have formulated a 'digital strategy' is it not a little flawed to pin the goal of the whole strategy on where we end up in the OECD? Sure, this is an easy measure of success but surely it makes more sense to set economic goals i.e. by 2010 $xx will be derived from online commerce.

For those who are interested there is a a web site dedicated to bagging Telecom and NZ broadband. It is a bit one sided and I don't necessarily agree with all that is said but it does make interesting reading here.