donations

Techsploder is floating an idea that Telecom enables customers donate their $3.25 credit from the broadband outages to the Indonesian earthquake relief effort.

From a PR standpoint, it isn't really a good move for Telecom. While people should donate to the relief effort, it'd be a bit rich for Telecom to effectively guilt people into parting with their money. A much better action is to make a large donation as a response to the idea and encourage people to donate money through the usual channels.

According to the DomPost, the total refund to customers isn't likely to exceed $300000, and given that a fraction of the people who haven't already signed up for the credit will likely a) clam the credit or b) decide to give it away. A donation of $500000, for example, direct from Telecom would be a win-win for the company and the relief effort.

Donations can be made through the Red Cross here.

telecom at it again

sigh.

After speculation over the finer points of Telecom's terms and conditions, we see that once again, Telecom is intent on being anal about it's generous offer of a refund.

It seems bizzare that they can keep records about not being able to use it's service, and not, y'know, provide it's service.

aboriginal injustice

If there was anything that a complacent nation needed to wake itself up - this is it. Australian aboriginal settlements remain strife with violence, rape, child mollestation, illiteracy and heartbreaking poverty. The last few days have seen the issue swept into view of the mainstream Australian media by Nanette Rogers, a Australian crown prosecutor from the Northern Territory. In an interview on ABC's Lateline, Nanette was told that the Federal Minister for Indigenous affairs didn't think Australians were ready to hear about children being raped. She disagreed. The transcript of the Lateline interview is horrifying in it's description of events that are taking place in the Northern Territories.(Warning: transcript is graphic in detail)

It did the trick, and the issue, all of the issues facing native Australia, are on the table - and everyone is calling for action. Rightly, the Federal Government ruled out marshal law, in the highlighted community of Wadeye, but have yet to do anything of substance - except call a summit. Critics have been swift to warn of creating another lost generation by dismantling communities and crushing traditional values. The State and Federal governments of Australian are between a rock and a hard place, trying to balance the clear need for the rule of law and actually doing something that will permanently lift the Aboriginal communities out of poverty and substance abuse.

This isn't the time for blaming and finger pointing. Australian authorities, and it's people, need to unite and deliver real solutions for it's most disadvantaged people.

what about wireless?

The debate isn't dying around what services will be on offer once the new telecommunication regulations come into force, thanks mostly to Annette Presley of Slingshot, who is making a lot of noise around her plans, including introducing free calls everywhere. The Herald ponders what the major players will do to offer bundled services for customers, while Computer World warns that the physical space in the cabinets may prove a stumbling block to unbundling. Stuff carries news about CDMA-C, which Telecom could be offering in 3 years. The Stuff article includes the usual hype about people multi-tasking on ultra futuristic mobile devices, surfing the net while watching the latest episode of Lost (They'll still be on that bloody island in 2010, trust me) and talking away at the same time - which is all a load of tosh.

Underlying all this lovely gagetry is the finite pool of money to maintain at least 6 network types, wireless and wired in a small, oddly shaped country. Figure in the fragmented rollout of the networks, with only one able to service the entire nation and most concentrating around urban areas - and we're in trouble. Unanswered is, if Telecom has to provide access to it's local loop, will TelstraClear have to do the same for it's 04 and 03 networks? It would be unfair and against the national interest not to do so.

While regulating fixed line assets seems straightforward, it becomes murky around wireless networks. It would be odd to force Telecom to have a wholesale fixed line arm, but not to do the same for it's mobile arm. Can we afford to have competing wireless networks for both mobile calling and broadband. In the future, the distinction be between the capabilities of the two network types will be zip, both able to carry any type of data at amazing speeds.

Splitting the whole of Telecom's operations into retail and wholesale operations will push the country into a competely different model of network operation. If we are to really open up our telecommunication networks, it is essential that other operators are placed into a similar regulatory split. It was done with some success in the electricity sector. I know that prices haven't moved in the way promised, but consumers now have companies competing for their custom, and there is more transparency in how we are billed for services. Implicit in the structure of the electricity sector is the acknowledgement that investment in alternate networks will not occur. What hasn't occurred is a framework to fund new investment. This can't be allowed to occur in a sector that can change in technology rapidly.

Shifting our telecoms delivery into a single body or several bodies that provide wholesale access to retail operators could be vital in keeping NZ in a position to adapt to new technologies, and is the only way (in fixed line, at least) to ensure that income is invested back into networks. It won't be long until operators decide that the return on investment for new national wireless networks isn't going to be enough. Woosh hasn't yet seen profit from it's investment and faces more costs from new technologies. What happens when it becomes too hard to constantly upgrade a network? National's experiment with the railways could be repeated if wireless networks are left without investment, a risk increased by the cheaper alternative of piggy-backing off the copper network. If any of the small wireless operators go under, there won't be buyers waiting to snap up the investment every time.

Also in the mix is the future of digital broadcast television. Investment into NZ Freeview, if and when it happens, will no doubt be done through BCL, a state owned network operator. Delivery paths for satellite television, can also be used for wireless broadband and home phone connections. Having a set top box that can be used as a hub for other technologies, would allow an operator, such as Slingshot to provide whatever services it wanted to - including on demand television and pay-tv channels, alongside whatever the state digital broadcaster provided.

It'll require serious dollars from the government, but more importantly, it'll require serious balls and a serious vision for communications in New Zealand. I'm not holding my breath.

story over

As Michael Ryan, the Telecom leaker, must be trying to put his life back together, the Herald reports that he's not actually seeking an employment grievance, and that he wasn't intending to in the first place. Which is good for everyone concerned. From the outside, the State Services Commission seemed to respect Ryan's position as an employee and his rights to not be accused via the media until he had a chance to respond to allegations by his employer. They were right to do so. Mr Ryan was similarly correct not to make a scene about his dismissal, considering what he did.

map this!

Google Maps now features New Zealand street level maps. (Hat Tip: NZBC).

Doesn't (yet) have the functionality to search for locations or driving directions. They'll get there, presumably, which has got to worry the other players in the NZ online map business - Wises and TUMONZ - who have both invested a lot of time and money into their services. We'll still be typing in the above for some time, out of habit. That'll stop when it intergrates into the main google search like GImages has.

However - and it is a big however - Google's product is a lot more fun to use, and it's open to mashing, allowing groups of people & businesses to create a common set of places, directions and labels. Imagine a retailer being able to provide custom directions to their customers from the shoppers home to the store, complete with icons signposting various store locations, layered with phone, carparking and service information, all for the cost of modifying their website. Current uses are, as always, less practical than all that. If the Earth were a Sandwich asks just that, and a lot a time can be wasted there. Google Maps Mania is the blog dedicated to mashing GMaps. A more cynical view here.

Yahoo! has provided a maps service for years, and I'm sure altavista or excite did at one stage too. Google's Mashing API is the killer app for maps (at the least), and while the other USA players may be able adapt to the coming of Google, the local players won't.

oh, deb

Just when you thought it was safe to read the newspaper, Deborah Coddington comes out this this bunch of trash. Coddington blunt analysis of the Telecom leak centres around her belief that

Thanks to the State Services Commission conducting its inquiry in secret, we don't really know what led to this extraordinary leak.

Well, we do. In fact, we know extraordinary detail about how the document got into Michael Ryan's hands, how he went about providing that information to his friend. Plus, given that the whole affair had to be balanced against the finer provisions of employment law, it's hardly reasonable to expect that a public trial take place before any facts are established.

Coddington continues with demands to know if

Telecom [was] asked if it received this information from any other sources? Were the phone logs of staff in the offices of Communications Minister David Cunliffe and other ministers examined?

Well - no and no. Telecom was only asked about the document and no forensic evidence was gathered, both answers from the State Services Commission Report into the affair. The next question borders on bizarre

Was there something the Prime Minister did not want to find? ... Which makes you wonder whether the Prime Minister wasn't quite as upset as she appeared to be at the inquiry's result. We still don't know the extent of Telecom's relationship with the Government.

Such as? Give me an example of how the PM benefited from the leak, how the leak changed the facts in substance or any reason anyone within the government would have reason to inform Telecom early. Considering that the Government had been actively showing it's frustration with Telecom in the past months and that the leak only shifted events by two weeks, I fail to see how there is a even a small conspiracy floating around this issue, which makes Coddington's accusation that the PM/the Cabinet/ministerial staffers are being blackmailed/bribed/bullied/fornicated by Telecom seem like she's complaining for the sake of it.

Press 1

I'm jet-setting off to Palmerston North tommorow - no thanks to my father, who originanally told me to be there on the 22nd, and only informed me after I had booked and paid for my flights that he'd given me the wrong dates. I'd booked my tickets, as one does in today's age, online, and because I'd done so I thought I'd be boarding a long haul telephone trip to sort it out. Then the most wonderful thing happened, a person - a real live one - answered the phone, after 6pm. And, after grovelling to the CSR I has booked new flights (albeit at impossible times of the day). My hat off to House of Travel, whose service was in stark contrast to my most attempt to call a company I do business with.

This lot, who recently ground the country to a stop, were impossible to get information out of. Admitedly, after a day of faults they decided to put up a message saying they were broken, but only if you managed to call the right number. One would assume their main portal, 0800 000 000, would at have a way to naviage to the faults/broadband line. But no, you don't even get 'if you are expeirencing trouble with a telecom product or service, hang up, step away from the phone, and don't contact us until you pay your bill'.

checkpoint budget casts

From NatRad's checkpoint, Acting Polictial Editor Brent Edwards has interesting comments regarding taking political language back from the right in his anaylsis of the budget. Worth a listen.

Budget 06

The biggest little shallow secret in the Dr Cullen's 7th Budget is the $1.3 billion boost in roading funing to plug the gap left in transit's ten-year plan, paid in part through a one-off $800m divided from Meridian Energy. The remainder will be picked up though a $400m slice of a billion dollar commitment by the government of infrstructure bonds (full budget speech). A special announcement of more dosh for the Waikato is due tommorow. Transit will be issuing key deliverables on the extra spending shortly.

The Budget was otherwise on mesage and unsupprising. On message also was Don Brash, in contrast to his pitiful reply to the 05 budget. In his response, Dr Brash called the Budget the 'Bondi Budget', banging on and on about tax cuts, not unlike some in the media, and failing to address anything of substance in the budget. Which in iteself isn't bad politics. The fact he stayed on message, keeping to a well vetted speech no doubt, really outlines National's key policy focus for the next 2 years: tax cuts, tax cuts and tax cuts. This is what'll run in the news tonight, and the papers tommorow. But Brash failed to capitalise on Cullen's inattention to waiting lists - not mentioned at all in his speech. He read his pre-prepared rebuttal on the issue, but could have sustained much more damage to the Government with a more decisive attack on this issue. Most Labour supporters won't really care about what Brash has to say about tax cuts - they'll see it for idealogical posturing - but they will care about hospital waiting lists. While National can be fingered for Ruthanasing the health system, Labour isn't doing so well in the fixing on it. I'm picking this to be the achilles heel for Labour for the rest of the term, it's up to both parties to muster their ranks for a battle before the other makes a fatal blow.

Telecom

So, with more puns than you can shake a stick at, the leaker has been revealed. And what an anti-climax it was after the rumblings throughout the blogosphere and around Wellington water-coolers and newsrooms. Not wanting to be mean, but (now-unemployed) Michael Ryan must be a special kind of stupid to not realise that Telecom's Group Financial Controller wasn't going to be wise on the implications of having such a document, and that he had to do something with it. Not to mention the fact that it's not that too much of a strain on the brains logic systems to figure that stealing the document is illegal, trading with insider knowledge is illegal, and that his friend, Peter Garty, would arise suspicion if he suddenly sold his shares.

It's all over, boys and girls, but try telling that to Gerry Brownlee with his rather pointless calls for a wider inquiry. The reason bureaucracy goes mad, especially at this level, is because too many chiefs have their say into the details. It's over Gerry - time to move onto something important. Like a policy or two.

buses

For the first time in a very long while, I'm without a car. So, since arriving at work around 6.30 this morning I'd been fretting about how on earth I would get from the North Shore to sunny Mt Eden. The last time I had to do this, I didn't have to worry about motorways and bridges. I didn't have to worry about which bus to take, when and at what stop. Tell you something for nothing: it aint easy. The maxx website, which was called Rideline last time I had a reason to use it, was impossible. Firstly, the ASP server was down for the first hour of trying to sort the damn trip out and when it finally came back up, it became a nightmare. Gone are the many listings to give you an option of times. Gone are the lovely snake diagrams which detail all the stops en route. All there is now are maps with multicoloured lines right over the street names, just in case I dared to pick a different stop than the one suggested. (I'd provide a link, but the ASP is on the brink again.) And then, the bloody cheek - Maxx wanted me to take four busses. I don't think so.

So I gave up on the website (the low-res pdf's of timetables didn't help either, can't see the street names) and rang the telephone line. Who said the internet was useful. For her, I made it easy. "Get me from work to town". Of course, her first suggestion was to take two busses to get across the bridge. I was livid.

In the end, I ignored all the instructions Maxx had given me and, resolute, walked to the nearby shops and - via the supermarket - found a way home.

My hat goes off to all the people who manage to navigate Auckland's busses. If I could, I would walk over the bridge - it's stupid that we can't. It'd be faster than the bus, and much less of a headache. Let's hope it doesn't get worse before it gets better. That is, if they ever finish the dig-a-thon up and down the northern. (speaking of which, would they just hurry up already with Fanshaw St, how hard can it be.)

not letting up

Today's issue of The Cud features a state of the internet special edition, including a look at the search wars by yours truly.

Google isn't letting up with a number of new additions to the Google Suite. Google Co-op is a merge of a wiki and web directory as search filtering. It'll certainly be useful in the most popular categories, but won't help improve searching for anything else. It may not even take off - depending on whether the end result ends up aiding or frustrating end users. It'll take manpower on the part of google to keep the results relevant and up to date. The other newborn isn't that new, but rather an old dog with increasingly new tricks. The lastest version of Google Desktop is packed full of add-on gadgets, with the promise of more to come. Both addititions call upon the human resource all internet users are, these two looking to mine the talents of the best and brightest to hone their talents.

(update: Google Talk is moving into a mobile phone near you)

And all this deep searching prompted a small memory for me. It was in the back of a dark studio, I'd been put in front of a computer screen for no particular reason. And there it was, all white space with a little logo in the middle with some strange word I'd never heard of. It was my first Google, and I was in love. Not becuase the search was any better (how does one tell anyway), but because of it's simplicity. Back then, on dial up, the incumbents Excite and Altavista were jam packed with all sorts of bells and whistles. Too many words on the screen that I didn't care about. Too much to load from the other side of the world. Excite still does it. I just wanted search, and nothing else. Google gave that to me, and I've stuck with it.

Let's hope it stays the same.

cold times

Now that the temperatures have finally taken a tumble, retail sales should pick up for the last few weeks of May, reversing a somewhat disappointing third quarter for some retailers. Mothers day should have picked up extra winter sales, with those usually not shopping picking up items on impulse.

I've forgotten how intrusive Auckland's cold can be - and how suddenly it can arrive. The fan, to keep comfortable with the warm humid nights has been replaced with the dehumidifier to ease the cold humidity of Auckland's winter.

Rod Dean is stepping down as Telecom chairman. I'm sure somewhere out there there'll be good riddance calls, especially since his conspicuous absence in the first few days of the LLU leak. Well yes, it'll be good to see him step down after so long at the helm, but it will be up to Dean, along with CEO Teresa Gattung, to make sure that they handle what has been an awful PR time for Telecom to create a direction for the business that will work with the new and planned regulation. There are indications of this already, but putting together a committee to establish the possible need for thinking about something isn't the final call. At the very least, Telecom needs to stick to its decision of splitting its business into customer and business divisions (with hopefully splitting wholesale into a different business). Telecom's services are currently a minefield to operate, and you might as well give up if you're looking for information on telecom.co.nz or xtra.co.nz. They desperately need to integrate their customer information portals, their pricing schedules (inc features and benefits) and their online access to information. It's eternally frustrating to have to log in multiple times to access any details surrounding one account.

It's a split that will make things better for Telecom in the long run, and should save overheads to boot. They would definitely be better off having done this 5 years ago. Instead they have chosen to underinvest in their customer experience. It's little wonder they're getting the cold shoulder lately.

Leaker to be revealed next week

In what has to one of the most blatant cases of under-promise, over-deliver in the civil service seen in a long while, State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble has found the Telecom leaker - and will report back next week. That anyone could be fooled into thinking it would actually take a month to report is silly - but Dr Prebble chose to err on the side of caution. Maybe he had concerns that, if the leaker had turned out to be politically powerful, he'd be pressured to sit on the finding till a palatable resolution was found for the Government. It'd be worrying if those were Prebble's thoughts.

SST/Stuff reports on a source pointing towards the Treasury being a possible source of the leak because, unlike other Ministries, it didn't get a chance to consult on the changes. Not surprising given their politically loaded briefings of the recent and not so recent past. The same stuff article has the SSC saying that the leaker, now stood down from his/her job, will get a chance to review the allegations before the report is released. Look to see an almighty showdown if, given the chance, the leaker decided to challenge release of specific information before the report is released.

Smile: It's Wal-Mart

So USA giant retailer Wal-Mart is seeking to gain copyright control over the smiley face, claiming it's (over) use of the symbol in the American retail market since the 90's gives it trademark rights for the symbol in the retail scene. This has to be one of the worst PR gaffs a corporate can make, trying to appropriate a symbol that feels to many to be unpatentable. Slightly misrepresented in the above artice (and in the NZHerald - can't see a link in the online edition) is that they were forced into it. From the LA times

[Wal-Mart] didn't move to register the trademark until someone else threatened to do so first, [forcing] the world's largest retailer is fighting a French native who has earned millions in licensing fees on smiley's back since the early 1970s, when he began securing trademarks for the happy face around the world.

But in protecting it's branding, and in turn it's profits, Wal-Mart is showing itself to be comepletely out of touch with the real world. American's, not to mention nationals of other markets Wal-Mart is/will be operating in won't take kindly to the stealing of the symbol.

Briscoe group (Briscoes and Rebel Sport) posted good results for the lastest quater, citing less discounting as the key to its success. Interesting to note NZ's most notirous Hi-Lo discounter might be working towards an EDLP strategy.

Donations

Good news with the Tasmania miners - they're free. What a drama. Hope they are well.

Idiot/Savant moots electoral donation reform here - should make for interesting discussion. Much needed area for change - pity Labour cocked up with their spending last year, any changes they might want to address will no doubt be stimied by their dirty feet.

liquor.shop.co.nz

The liquor market in NZ is hotting up with Progs, Foodies and the Warehouse set to shake up the scene over the next few months. The move by the big two supermarket isn't supprising given international licencing conditions have given their overseas counterparts plenty of profit in the sprit and RTD market.

But we're not going to see a pice war - not unless one of the big two flinches, despite The Mill's opening of Liquor.co stores. Partly because the supermarkets will ignore Liquor.co, and partly because Liquor's parallel import strategy will hamper direct comparative pricing, and keep the the budget brands (inc. The Warehouse) happy with their margins.

(Liquor.co isn't to be confused with liquor.com on Queen St, neither of which have an internet presence...)

Despite what the supermarkets would have you believe, compared to dry grocery lines, liquor has a good margin - and the high value, again compared to Weet-Bix and tinned peaches, high volume nature of the category will keep all the players interested in keeping prices stable.

It's bad enough to them that Kiwis buy well over half of all liquor when it's discounted, when margins are squeezed in favour of volume. They can't afford to push loss leaders year round against each other because neither Progs or Foodies will win. They really have only two options in the market: push smaller players out or let their competitors etch away at their market share. It's going to be a combination of both - probably consolidating into 4 or 5 players with very few independants stadning firm in small towns and licencing trust areas.

Which is why growing the category is the only option for them. Bring on sprits. Bring on the store within a store model. Yes, less players=evil in a lot of cases. But with licencing laws unlikely to relax in New Zealand in the next twenty years, large liquor retailers will continue to go out of their way to keep their licences clean from underage stings (v bad PR).

Big players are easy targets for instectors, they deliver results and publicity to the reality of underage alcohol purchases. Less players=easier targets=more vigilance.

This has got to be good for our binge drinking culture. Normalising the 18+ sale of hard sprits (and bringing it away from dodgy dealers) will create a more mature drinking culture in the country. Just look at how we looked at wine 20 years ago. I'd bet Chardonnay and Sauvignon weren't everyday words, let alone Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris.

Yes. It's all about the money. But if the police/district and national licencing authrotities hold their nerve (as they did with the Red Sheds) and keep on top of the big players, we could all be better off.

Like a grown up

In a way, the leaking of the government's decision to require Telecom to unbundle it's local loop may work in its advantage, if only for keeping the stakes high and the issue alive. Inquiries, and calls for more inquiries, possibly followed by more inquires into the lead will reign upon news cycles for months. Telecom will continued to be painted as the big bad wolf, and the other players will have a chance to breathe and create battle plans to for a post-inquiry New Zealand.

The road is going to be rough for the likes of Slingshot and ihug, not only do will they have the task of planning their rollout, but they have the unenviable task of keeping Telecom on notice that they won't be taking any BS from the giant.

The temptation will be there for Telecom to not place nice, as it has done in the past(see David Slack's blog for a satire of the defense of hegemony) . It has to realsie that, even though they won't be retaining monopoly rights, they can deliver to shareholders profit.

How?

By doing it better. By delivering on price and value and keeping customers happy. The internet has fantastic potential for content and services, not to mention the existing ones that Telecom is (unsurprisingly ) eroding to lift its bottom line. I'll bet that its competitors will use "Full Service Internet" as a competitive point of difference. Contention ratios will, hopefully, become another.

I remember being with ihug back in, ooh, must have been 96/97, and always getting an engaged tone on my all-you-can-eat dialup account. I was told my someone, or read somewhere, that it was never a problem on paradise.net so I switched and was better off for it.

Ihug, was the first to offer a flat rate all-you-can-eat plan, before that it was per hour or megabyte and it was expensive. Before Telecom followed ihug's move, they somehow managed to gain customers on their unworldly $6.95/hr plan. They didn't have any particular unfair advantage over others. They didn't constrain dialup in the way they now constrain broadband. What they did have was a name everyone knew and dollars.

They'll still have that no matter what happens to them over the next few years. It'll keep them in the black for many years to come. But only if they're smart and start acting like a grown up company and adapt to their customers needs instead of throwing the toys out of the cot every time it's suggested they do.

News frenzy

I don't think I've actually had a genuine sense of excitement and anticipation at reading a newspaper before, but this morning ducking down from my cube for a smoko the Herald in hand, I was very much looking forward to what the paper had to say about last night's LLU announcement.

Followed by a tinge of disappointment. There's still a lot to happen before we, as a nation, get to experience faster cheaper broadband. Computerworld has a timeline, showing likely progress, and analysis - most telling of which is

Due to Telecom's delays in delivering on the government's targets, Cunliffe has been forced to lower the goal that New Zealand will be in the top quarter by 2010, to the top half only.

While the likes of Maurice Williamson can bleat on all he likes, it doesn't change the fact that Telecom is a monopolist, and that action needed to be taken.

Sir Humphrey's carries news from NZX/Telecom that the leak came before the cabinet decision, and rightly points out why didn't the government act sooner in releasing the information.

And good on Campbell Live for getting David Cunliffe (video) on Wednesday over CloseUp (RB with the inside scoop, and his own views on the news) and also for getting Teresa Gattung (video) tonight. Goes to show that a new player can play alongside, if not beat, the incumbent given time. Imagine what state we'd be in if our airwaves weren't open to competition. Now look at broadband. If you're not watching JC, then you should.

Speaking of Russell Brown, following the links to the rushed interview(video) he did with CloseUp I was appalled to have defaulted to the tiny tiny version of the video. I switched to the broadband, but it's wasn't reliable enough on my Xtra "3.5mbs" connection.

Amongst a day of news about regulation, government, business and technology it was almost nice to get this curious, if not slightly worrying, piece of news. The BBC turns out either to be putting a strong case in outsourcing the Civil Defense, or reporting events with hysteria. In any case, the Civil Defense have a lot of face-saving to do on this one. It's not like we didn't know ourselves.

Decision time.

Well. It actually happened. Communications Minister David Cunliffe was forced this evening to announce that the Government will be taking action to get Telecom to open up access to the local loop for broadband connections.

Story links: Press release, NZHerald, Stuff, Wiki on Local Loop Unbundling(LLU)

Always first off the post David Farrar said that the Cabinet decision (pdf) (update: pdf link seems to have disappeared, 4 hours later) "looks to be very good. Maybe even excellent". It is. It's wonderful. Well, it's got potential at least.

Details are a little sketchy since Telecom managed to get hold of the decision, supposed to be a Budget Secret, hours after the Cabinet Committee signed off. There's no time frame, no real "blueprint" as Anette Presley of Slingshot said on Campbell Live tonight. Unfortunately for Cunliffe, there'll be a lot of pressure on him to outline the timeframe and details of the unbundling. Less importantly to the public, but probably top of his mind, is how the damn thing got into Telecom's hands in the first place. Good on them for owning up straight away, but Telecom has a lot of power in Wellington and it would be hard for whoever who did it to argue they were doing it for reasons other than to give chums at Telecom the quick heads up, and to deny the Labour government of an opportunity to deliver a real juicy morsel in its budget.

Will be interesting to watch.

On a slightly more "*sigh*, the right-wing always finds a way to complain" sort of way, was some of the blog feedback. Michael Ellis firstly at KiwiBlog, then on his own site, is demanding on behalf of Telecom compensation for the LLU.

To the tune of $500 million.

Excuse me?

Firstly, Telecom is a monopoly. A monopoly that has been dragging it's heels on broadband speed and price, and that has at the very least been obsfucating the public wanting to connect via another isp. Plus their online services, websites especially, are eternally frustrating.

Secondly, their propertly isn't being confiscated. It isn't being blocked by the government.

And finally, it's not about Telecom. It's about New Zealand. I know that sounds like a load of toss, but its true. The sale of the corporation was a mistake, done badly. Now someones got to fix it if we want to stop being compared to Mexico as an equivalent first world country.

Somebody is fixing it, or at least starting to. Let's hope they pull it off.

Who's got the biggest box?

Very big-box retail weekend. Saw Botany Downs, got scared. Left. Ventured, out of necessicity into The Warehouse, Farmers, Briscoes and Arbuckles, all in the quest for a blanket to enjoy long winters nights in front of TV. I didn't want a throw. I didn't want something that would grate against my skin. I most certainly didn't want everything in pastel or loafer-tan colours. Erugh.

I just wanted a bloody blanket.

To cap it all off, all the above source from the same suppliers. Same colours, same designs, just different packaging. All ugly ugly ugly. Looks like two suppliers dominate the NZ manchester scene. (In its defence, The Warehouse did have some nice throws, but lost points for pushing hideous snuggle sacks). It took the global giant, K-Mart (Categories managed out of Oz) to prodivde something unique and interesting in the NZ retail blanket scene. A different choice.

If you driven on the southern past Mt Wellington in the past year, you'll have seen the newest big box rising. Well, more a collection of them. Sylvia Park will be mamoth. Just huge. The fact it's opening in stages will give you that. The fact there will be three players desperate for your weekly grocery shop (Progs, Foodies and -if you havn't heard, where have you been - The Warehouse.

But if you're looking for hope to find something unique and interesting - like a blanket- you won't. It'll be the same thing, really. These blokes have signed up. So have these. A few new aussie retailers are all over it, including Howard's Storage World and Secrets, the diamond-in-a-lab company (also opening in Newmarket). And despite being a construction site still, the carparks are already: a. in the plural, b. large and c. full.

But look down the aisles at these stores. Match them up. Same old stuff. Foodtown will certainly have the best food offer, but it wont be different to Greenlane Foodtown. Dollars though volume. Foodstuffs teaming up with Metcash, Progressive's recent supplier stouch, twisting the arms of suppliers on both sides of the tasman, will mean less choice for the consumer. A jetset marketing adviser told The Sydney Morning Herald that

"My experience of this happening in the UK is there's very little manufacturers can do but roll over. It's standard operating procedure for retailers. The first thing they do is look at the price book of the company they've acquired and drive down prices. When Wal-Mart took over ASDA in the UK, the instructions were to do exactly that."

He went on to say,

"Sympathetic to the plight of small manufacturers" but they would disappear in the Woolworth's takeover of Progressive [and that]"Inevitably a lot of small manufacturers will fall by the wayside."

Much the same point, less callously told, from Rod Oram in the Sunday Star Times.

But, until we see what the lastest oversized ticky-tacky will bring, I now can enjoy those winter nights, in front of the box, warm and comfy with my blanket.