Industry comment
In the rapidly evolving telecoms environment, all players must be prepared for the challenges brought by constant change. Our consultants offer an expert perspective on the issues that confront the telecoms industry.
In the rapidly evolving telecoms environment, all players must be prepared for the challenges brought by constant change. Our consultants offer an expert perspective on the issues that confront the telecoms industry.
August 16, 2018
Eight months after the switch to digital radio in Norway, what is really happening in the radio market? Is DAB a success?
Read more >>March 6, 2018
By the end of the Ultra-Fast Broadband Extension (UFB2) in 2022, 87% of New Zealand homes and businesses are expected to have access to fibre-based broadband. However, for the remaining 13% of homes in rural New Zealand the luxury of tapping in to an unlimited ultra-high speed data pipe will be out of reach, or come at a significantly higher cost.
Read more >>July 10, 2017
An increasing number of enterprises, especially in vertical industries such as utilities and transportation, consider replacing their mission critical or corporate communications infrastructure with an LTE network. This trend is driven by the need for more mobility, bandwidth, flexibility of coverage and multiple classes of services. In recent years, private LTE networks have been successfully deployed in many sectors including public protection and disaster relief (PPDR), energy, maritime and railway transportation.
Read more >>June 7, 2017
The high cost of fibre deployment in the access network is still the main obstacle facing broadband connectivity, particularly in rural areas. Low population densities and long drop lengths do not justify the business case. However, urban areas have their challenges too.
Read more >>November 10, 2015
Our last update of Internet access affordability in the Pacific Islands was three years ago, so what has changed, and is affordability improving significantly?
Read more >>September 9, 2014
The deployment of a new international submarine cable for New Zealand is still a topic for discussion in the telecommunications industry. Although the Pacific Fibre failure back in 2012 may have discouraged other similar projects, the idea of building an alternative link is still attractive for some industry players.
Read more >>July 8, 2014
Globally regulators use different approaches to impel monopolies towards greater efficiency and fairer prices. Regulatory asset base (RAB) is one such approach which is being increasingly used for regulating infrastructure based industries/sectors. Though its use is relatively new in telecommunications, it has been used for a long time in other sectors including electricity transmission and distribution, gas transmission and distribution, water and sewerage, railways, aviation and postal services.
Read more >>April 8, 2014
Regulation aims to balance obligations to both customers and providers. However there are other factors (apart from regulation) that can influence electricity prices. These include changes in demand, generation and legislation. Some countries (such as Estonia, Latvia and Ireland) are abandoning regulation and determining prices based on demand and supply only (with tax regulation). This is due to the preference of regulators for open electricity markets as they believe price regulation can distort the operation of the electricity sector and is a risk to security of supply. However this emerging trend is very slow and it is unlikely that electricity price regulation will be eliminated in the near future.
Read more >>February 11, 2014
In the 2013 Telecommunications Review discussion paper, the New Zealand Government considered that Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) policy objectives were unlikely to be met without early intervention to prevent reductions in copper wholesale pricing. Specifically the Government feared that Chorus, the largest local fibre company (LFC), would be hard pressed to meet its fibre rollout commitments with the reduction in copper access revenues implied by recent Commerce Commission decisions on unbundled bitstream access and unbundled copper local loop access services. Although Chorus is a private company, Government has made a substantial financial investment in the UFB project and so the ability of Chorus to deliver on its contract is of public concern.
Read more >>January 28, 2014
The deployment of smart grids by electric utilities worldwide has provided significant benefits to the utilities as well as to the wider communities. Through the ability to deploy fibre alongside their existing networks, and vast experience in the deployment and operation of infrastructure, utilities are able to enter the telecommunications market with ease and compete fiercely with existing operators. It is therefore unsurprising that many telcos have legally challenged such utilities in an attempt to stamp out or delay competition.
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