2degrees has challenged the Commerce Commission to make most of Telecom's calling data public. And what a good position to take. More information is always better. At least for consumers and businesses who want more fair and open competition - the very ideal that the commission exists to promote.

But it’s also hypocritical.

A series of letters between the major telcos and the Commerce Commission, first highlighted by Computerworld (see link below) shows that:

- 2degrees wants its MTR deal with Vodafone kept secret
- 2 degrees wants Telecom’s on-net, off-net calling ratios, revenue splits and other calling data to be made public
- Telecom is happy for its MTR agreements with other telcos to be made public
- Telecom wants all of its customer calling stats kept secret
- Vodafone wants 2degrees’ MTR deal made public
- Vodafone wants all other deals kept secret

In short: all the telcos think their deals should be kept confidential - except when it suits them commercially and politically. Then it’s pitched as being in the public interest for the information to be made public.

I can simplify that further: it’s always in public interest.

The commission now puts a lot of its correspondence with telcos on its website or the MED website, which is a great development. But no one’s still sure exactly what will go online, or when.

This arrangement suits the commission as it engages in the hand-to-hand political combat that's inherent to any investigation into fraught areas such as mobile termination access services (MTAS) and domestic roaming.

For example, when Vodafone hit the commission with a ferocious 16-page letter, threatening legal action if it kept pushing the pace on its mobile termination review, the watch-dog put it on its website. The glare of publicity immediately robbed it of its meance.

Should Telecom’s calling data remain secret?
At the recent TelCon10 conference, 2degrees, Vodafone and the Telecommunications Users Association were united in calling for Telecom to reveal how many of its customer calling minutes are on its own network (on-net) along with other metrics. This information used to be made public, but hasn’t been for several years.

Telecom demurs.

In a letter to the commission’s delightfully-named Telecommunications Branch, dated July 24, Telecom senior counsel Simon Haines writes:

In response to a challenge by 2Degrees, the Commission has sought views on whether certain categories of information should continue to be accorded COI [commission-only information] status under the MTAS section 100 order [section 100 being the $12,000-a-day fine statute used to order the NBR’s Vodafone-2degrees story offline] or whether it is more appropriate to accord it the lesser protection of RI [restricted information] status. The information covered by the challenge is as follows:

- Duration of contracts for residential and business customers;
- Actual minutes of calls from and to mobiles;
- Average duration of calls from and to mobiles
- Disaggregated volumes and revenue splits for SMS sent and received, into on-net and off-net and international; and
- Revenue splits and average retail prices for calls from and to mobiles, into on-net, off-net and international

Mr Haines continues later in the letter:

A recipient of this information would be able to see at a high level which of Telecom’s (or Vodafone’s) customers would be ripe to switch and at what point in time.

A competitor could use this information to devastating effect with respect to targeting and timing its marketing campaigns to win customers from the provider of the information.

Bingo. More competition. More openness. Fewer backroom deals between telcos, or political compromise by the commission and its minister. Some information will always be too commercially sensitive to share with competitors, let alone the public. But as a rule of thumb, more information is better.

Mr Haines added that if information was classified RI (that is, that it could be shared with competitors who signed a confidientiality agreement, rather than COI or commission-only information shared only between a telco and the watchdog) then companies would be less confident to share data with investigators.

Well, sorry buddy, but participation is not optional.

Intriguingly, in a letter dated July 30, the commission proposes that interconnection agreements between Telecom, Vodafone and 2degrees be reclassified RI (restricted information) with a final decision due on August 7. NBR’s story was ordered offline on August 5 for violating the MTAS section 100 order sin place at that time - however, it remains legally moot whether the order covers media. NBR's story is still off-line.