http://www.itnews.com.au/News/302038,the-new-zealand-telco-problem.aspx
"Telstra expected to have excess cash flow of A$2billion-to-$3b over the next three years, McCormick said. "Having ruled out share buybacks, this money is partly earmarked for acquisitions."
It's an interesting question, but would the OIO, the ACCC or government ever let that happen?
Or am I just dreaming? If you'd asked me three decades ago if Australia would ever own "The Bank of New Zealand" then I'd have just laughed at you, but today Australian companies own all four of our big banks.
I can see a truck load of benefits for Telstra. It would mean they just by the AAPT wholesale business back in Australia, would give them a controlling share of SCX and mean they'd own and control the line share of capacity to .us on 3 different cables and could much better dictate what everyone else pays for high speed access. It would give them an ability to dominate the local mobile markets and give them a really really strong position to get what they want from Chorus with respect to UFB.
Would it be good for consumers?
Well Telstra have just brought us 100/10 to 70,000 homes. I'd like to know how the uptake compares to VDSL. The price is right though. For the same prices as Snaps VDSL I get 100 not 50 and it didn't cost me $400 for a modem and $400 for wiring and got done in less than two weeks.
I'll agree that $75/40/phone/data has been a disaster for TGA users in recent weeks and a few are suffering in other parts, but clearly it's a winning price point for consumers because clearly people dumped out dated plans all over and moved.
TCL are still giving away T-Boxes which has to be keeping Sky in check to some degree and putting pressure on every other STB providers to put value in their offerings. The T-Box is all geared up for some serious IP based TV offerings to come as well. So clearly they have more plans for that kit on the radar and clearly their HFC network is being ramped up to deliver more content.
It used to be that TCL was the premium IP provider (or at least the providers that they bought) but it's clearly moved to a consumer provider getting back to being far more focused on delivering more value and bringing more value to New Zealanders than they've been getting.
So would a Telstra take over of Telecom be a good thing for New Zealanders?
Clearly in Australia, Australians have more data than New Zealanders. I wonder if TCL's 40/75/Phone deal was the driver that pushed Telecom to actually, yet again, double data?
Yes, in the last two years TCL's profit has reported as crap. $1m profit on $750m sales, that's not flash, but why? Have they been quietly just stacking the deck ready to bring the sort of value they do deliver in Australia?
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