New ICT minister Adams faces two big fights

Amy Adams, who replaced Steven Joyce as Minister for Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) in this morning's cabinet reshuffle, faces two major bunfights - one unavoidable (the 2012 spectrum auction), and one possible (over intensifying unrest with Sky TV's near-monopoly as the telecommunications and pay TV industries converge.

However things play out, NBR political editor Rob Hosking rates Ms Adams.

"She's young and hungry and wants to make a mark. She's not going to be content to be a placeholder. Think David Cunliffe 2005, only without the grandiosity," Mr Hosking said.

It was widely tipped that Mr Joyce would move on from the ICT portfolio.

The received wisdom was that with Crown fibre contracts signed, Telecom separated, and mobile market regulation in place, the new ICT minister would be something of a place-holder.

No so, Telecommunications Users Association (Tuanz) chief executive Paul Brislen told NBR.

"While some of the obvious heavy lifting has been done, the portfolio now faces a huge challenge - not building the infrastructure but how do we use that infrastructure to build NZ Inc," Mr Brislen told NBR.

Auction frenzy
The Tuanz boss noted that the 700MHz frequency auction will happen on Ms Adams watch.

The MED-hosted auction, scheduled for late next year, will see Telecom, Vodafone, 2degrees and others bidding for around 45MHz of 4G-friendly spectrum freed up by the analogue-to-digital TV switchover. The telco trio are jostling with an iwi claim supported by National ally The Maori Party, and a bid by Kordia, Motorola and Tait to expand the traditional bandwidth allocation emergency services (the trio say extra airwaves are needed for new services such as taking photo or video at the scene of an accident to forward to medical providers).

The government hopes to raise around $230 million from the auction.

With the big three telcos each wanting spectrum to to be auctioned in 20MHz chunks (and 2degrees wanting that amount of spectrum at a mates' rate to enhance market competition), but only 45MHz to go around, Ms Adams will have to negotiate some furious lobbying efforts.

"Joyce doesn't get away from ICT either - his role is critical in ensuring we have enough graduates coming through to work in the ICT sector and build our high tech sector to be the equivalent of farming in terms of revenue," Mr Brislen noted.

Single broadcasting, telecommunications regulator
InternetNZ chief executive Vikram Kumar told NBR his organisation wants to see, "Progress towards a common broadcasting and telecommunications regulatory and institutional framework." 

If Ms Adams does heed increasingly vocal calls for a single telecommunications and broadcasting regulator, that would be bad news for Sky TV. While the pay TV industry has been lightly regulated, telecommunications has been heavily regulated by National. Mr Joyce, in NBR's words, "out Laboured Labour" with the Telecommunications Amendment Act, which called on Telecom to split into two separate companies if it was to participate in the $1.35 billion Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) project, and regulated wholesale mobile phone network pricing for the first time in New Zealand's history.

Some - including Telecommunications Commissioner Ross Patterson - see a near-monopoly pay TV provider as a potential roadblock to fast internet uptake as the broadcasting and telecommunications industries converge.

So far, however, National has shown no inclination that it favours a single regulator (or a single minister; Craig Foss has taken over the broadcasting portfolio from Jonathan Coleman).

InternetNZ (which administer's NZ internet addresses on behalf of the global internet governing body ICANN, and lobbies on behalf of end-users), also wants the new minister to work on closing the digital divide between broadband haves and have-nots, move to boost green ICT, enhance cyber-security and speed the implementation of IP6 (Ms Adams might want to do a little homework on that one).

On Twitter
However, she attacks her new portfolio, people in the ICT community will potentially have more access to Ms Adams who, unlike her predecessor, Ms Adams is on Twitter and Facebook (both happy hunting grounds for Labour ICT spokeswoman Clare Curran) and has her own website.

Ranked 20 in National's cabinet line up (Mr Joyce was 14 during his time as ICT minister), Ms Adams is also Minister of Internal Affairs, and Associate Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery.

Ms Adams attended the North Shore's prestigious Rangitoto College. After graduating the University of Canterbury she worked as a commercial lawyer for Christchurch firm Mortlock McCormack before becoming the MP for Selwyn in 2008. She and her husband also manage a sheep station.