Just back from a Brussels briefing on the OECD's 2008 broadband survey, Tuanz boss Ernie Newman brings back good news, and bad.

The good: the speed of broadband update in New Zealand last year was among the fastest in the OECD. Local loop unbundling really has made a difference.

New Zealand also does well in another aspect of the OECD’s survey, which correlates broadband update to GDP-per-person. In this metric, we’re doing better than our so-so wealth as a country would otherwise indicate.

The bad news: New Zealand is one of only four countries in the OECD where data caps are universal. Elsewhere in the developed world, customers enjoy all-you-can-eat data plans.

Here, of course, there’s the ever-present threat of punitive charges, or your speed being throttled back, if you bust your cap.

That does, of course, detract from your enjoyment of your speedy new ADSL2+ connection.

Hopefully Telecom will use the introduction of its souped-up VDSL2 service later this year to introduce all-you-can-eat data plans. Even if they cost a little more up front - which Telecom conceded to NBR some months back - that would be a great way to reverse Telecom’s declining share in retail DSL - and bump us up the OECD league table at the same time.

That would be nice, but don't hold your breath, says Mr Newman. The Tuanz boss thinks data caps will become more of an issue, but will probably still exist for VDSL's introduction, and beyond.

Telecom blames data caps on New Zealand's geographic isolation, which exposes us more than other countries to the relatively high price of international data (new Telecom Broadband plans, introduced in reaction to increased competition, have at least lifted monthly data limits).

Mr Newman  does not think this explanation is sufficient in itself, however.

Caching (placing copies of popular sites, software downloads and multimedia content on local servers) would go a long way to easing international data constraints.

Telecom head of broadband Ralph Brayham has been talking up caching for more than a year, but so far there's no sign of any concrete plan.

Conspiracy theorists could point to caching's potential to dramatically diminish international data traffic, and thus revenue for the 50% Telecom-owned Southern Cross Cable.

Vodafone offers three months' free roaming
Incidentally, Mr Newman also brings news of three-months' free international roaming for Vodafone customers, beginning June 1 - including calls, txts and pxts at domestic cost if you send them from NZ to the UK. But don't get too excited, he spotted it on a billboard as he passed through a London airport; it applies to Vodafone's European customers only ... still, what a promotion for Vodafone NZ to adopt if it wants to keep business customers from straying to XT ...

Elsewhere:
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Google introduces http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-logo-look.html " target="_blank">new logos.

The New York Times mulls the prospect of self-aware computer super brains.

Bloomberg forbids linking to - or even mentioning - competitors, following similar moves by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.