Vodafone did not want LLU, just as Telecom did not. Vodafone wanted to enter the home broadband market via it's WCDMA network, and now this looks even harder for them. Vodafone NZ CEO stated that he wanted completion to come from networks (infrastructure) and not from LLU.
nzbnw
How will it make it harder for Vodafone? Unbundling isn't going to mean we're going to get 10Mbps flat rate internet for $9.95 per month as some people seem to think. Providers will still have to lease Telecom's circuits off them at a price that hasn't yet been announced but will possibly be around the $15 - $20 range per month. Reastically I wouldn't expect broadband price points to drop significantly from what it is at present in the immediate future, what we should see is better caps and better speeds.
The other factor we have in NZ is an extremely high cost of a local phone service. The operators that are going to gain from ULL are those who can also offer a phone service at a price point below Telecom's $40 odd per month. This is where the likes of Slingshot/Callplus could have a very significant impact on the marketplace very quickly - if they can offer you a highspeed high data cap internet connection and phone service for around the $60 per month then it's going to be a real wakeup call for Telecom.