Speculation by Labour Commerce spokesman Paul Swain about competition surrounding the 2GHz Auction shows his limited understanding of the issues, Communications Minister Maurice Williamson said today.

"Competition is important and the issues have been carefully considered by the Government prior to taking the decision to proceed.

"The Auction has been designed so that all bidders can see other participants bids and can respond. No bidder can "secretly' buy all the spectrum on offer. In addition all the successful bids have to be cleared by the Commerce Commission under the Commerce Act to ensure there are no competition concerns," said Mr Williamson.

Mr Williamson said that history in this area associated with mobile telephones indicates that the Commerce Act can ensure that one applicant does not dominate. "For example, in the early 1990s, Telecom was not allowed to hold all the available spectrum for cellular telephones."

"Also, no one can purchase all of the 2GHz spectrum because, as bidders are aware, there is another 15MHz of spectrum which is likely to be available to auction in three to five years."

"What the opposition fails to explain is how it makes commercial sense for anyone to purchase this valuable resource and "warehouse it", as Mr Swain claims, when it has tremendous potential for next generation cellular technology," said Mr Williamson.

"It's also interesting to note that the issue of including a "Use or Lose" provision in the Radio Communications Act was considered in 1988 by the then Labour Government, who decided against it."

"The Government's confident anyone buying this spectrum will want to use it."

ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>