NBR asked Chorus to respond to the "nuclear option" theory put forward variously by Tuanz CEO Paul Brislen and IDC telecommunications research manager Peter Wise.
That is, Chorus provides most of us with pretty good copper broadband speeds. But legally, it's only obliged to provide ISPs with a minimum 32Kbit/s copper broadband - dialup rather than actual broadband speed.
Mr Wise notes that while regulatory wranging continues, including the multi-year final pricing priciples review, Chorus could throw it's toys out of the cot and say that if the Commerce Commission's going to play by the letter of the law, it will too, and throttle most of our copper DSL broadband back to miserable dialup speed.
Telecommunciations Users Association boss Brislen comes at things from a slightly different angle. He wrote earlier this week, "I'm hearing growing concern from ISPs that Chrous will begin enforcing this handover rate as a way to get more money out of the ISPs. If customers complained en masse, an ISP would be forced to buy a more expensive service from Chorus, Mr Brislen speculates.
Chorus spokesman Ian Bonnar responded late Friday, refusing to put the rumour to bed.
"I can confirm that we are currently providing broadband to a significantly higher standard than is required by law," Mr Bonnar told NBR.
"As you saw from the Minister’s announcement yesterday, our current focus is engaging with Crown Fibre Holdings with regard to our contract to build UFB.
"There’s a lot of rumours and speculation out in the industry about things we could do the moment but we’re not going to get into commenting on each one."
Chris Keall
Sat, 07 Dec 2013
Sat, 07 Dec 2013
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Chorus responds to Brislen, IDC "nuclear option" theory
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