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.