I've just got this press release:

FREE BROADBAND DEAL MARKS ONE YEAR SINCE LLU ANNOUNCEMENT

New Zealand's second largest provider of ADSL broadband is giving away free broadband to mark the one year anniversary of the announcement to unbundle the local loop.

Ihug CEO Mark Rushworth says it's unbelievable that it's been a whole year since the announcement and yet consumers hadn't seen any tangible benefits.

"There's no doubt things are slowly progressing but it's incredibly frustrating for Kiwis still not to be experiencing the much touted 'faster, cheaper' broadband."

Rushworth says that ihug, now owned by Vodafone, is already well on the way with its preparations for local loop unbundling so that once they have access to the copper lines they'll be able to provide customers with a much improved broadband service.

"In the meantime we thought we'd take things into our own hands - we can't offer faster broadband speeds yet but we can make it more affordable by giving 3 months away free."

Ihug's 3 month free broadband deal launched today and applies to all new and existing ihug customers who get ihug broadband and home phone for 18 months.  Full details of the offer, which ends on June 30th 2007, are at www.ihug.co.nz/specials.