Telecom Ready To Deliver Unbundled Services

TELECOM READY TO DELIVER UNBUNDLED SERVICES

Telecom is well advanced in its planning to deliver the unbundled services which the Government has endorsed.

The Government today announced it had accepted the Commerce Commission’s recommendation to require bitstream unbundling and the delivery of unbundled partial circuits.

“We have been prudently working on getting ready to deliver these services to our competitors, and will have them available in June and September respectively,” General Manager Government & Industry Relations Bruce Parkes said today.

“We are totally committed to making the recommendations work.

“We believe a growing, competitive broadband market will be good for everyone – customers, competitors and Telecom.

“Having rolled out broadband to 92% of lines and set a target of 250,000 residential broadband customers by the end of next year, we’re totally committed to broadband.

“We see about a third of the 2005 target being delivered by competitors through a combination of unbundled and wholesale services.

“These decisions lay out a way for competitors to use our infrastructure to develop their own broadband services – both for residential and small and medium business customers who require JetStream-type services and for corporate customers with higher bandwidth needs.

“As we have made clear, we see the Unbundled Bitstream Service (UBS) as a good start point for the industry. It reflects where the market is now and will inevitably develop as the market develops.”

Mr Parkes said New Zealand had been through a long and intensive debate over unbundling since 2000.

“Now that we at last have some certainty, we can get on with the job and focus on delivering for customers,” Mr Parkes said.

ENDS

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