TELECOM NEW ZEALAND PROPOSES A TRANSITIONAL OPERATIONAL SEPARATION MODEL – MARCH 2007
Telecom held a presentation explaining the operational separation model to be implemented by the company as part of the NZCOG conference held in February 2007 at Palmerston North in New Zealand. Prior to this, back in December 2006, New Zealand’s parliament had passed the Telecommunications Amendment Bill which included the three way operational separation of Telecom New Zealand and the full unbundling of the local loop, ensuring access to naked DSL.
It was reported that the attendees of the conference were encouraged by the level of transparency that appeared to be involved in the process. The presentation outlined the Undertakings Implementation Programme (UIP) which had been formed in December 2006, to act as the single point of accountability for managing the transition of Telecom to comply with undertakings which will emerge from the current determination process.
Telecom recognises that the New Zealand government is currently underway with the execution of its process of determination which means that the exact nature of the operation separation is not yet defined. However Telecom believes that it should progress positively with the necessary planning and preparation work.
The separation process was described by Telecom genuinely ‘challenging’ because:
Products will need to be built and many significantly modified;
Processes that have been linked for many years need to change to fit the new model;
Interfaces must be created in systems that were not built for that purpose or they must be replaced;
Thousands of people must be moved into new management structures.
At the same the network technology must be shifted to a Next Generation Network (NGN), based on IP technology.
These challenges and obstacles must be overcome by Telecom ‘in the context of some real and significant industry resource constraints.’
To achieve this goal, Telecom’s program riding instructions for compliance to the Undertakings will aim to achieve an effective balance between:
Minimising service performance impacts on existing consumers, both wholesale and retail;
The time taken to get new services for the NGN to New Zealand;
The total cost of transition, for both Telecom and the industry as a whole.
However in order for Telecom to achieve this goal successfully, it must:
Engage Telecom people (and its contractors/suppliers) in the process of change;
Understand what its wholesale and retail customers want as part of this change;
Have an effective and open engagement with the telecoms industry;
Have an effective engagement with the government and government officials to optimise the process for all stakeholders that are involved.
See also:
New Zealand – Regulatory Environment – Telecommunications Act and TSO;
New Zealand – Regulatory Environment – LLU and Interconnection;
New Zealand – Regulatory Environment – Wholesale and Number Portability.
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