#orcon

Download Weekly – First copper cabinets decomissioned

Chorus turned off the first batch of copper cabinets while the Commerce Commission cleared the Orcon-2degrees merger. Urban copper removal underway If everything goes to plan, by the time you read this Chorus will have turned off the power at 28 roadside cabinets serving the copper phone network. The cut off was scheduled to take place this week. It is the start of a process to decommission…

Download Weekly – Industry’s Orcon-2degrees merger fears

It’s not enough to halt the merger, but submissions to the Commerce Commission point out regulatory challenges that may emerge after an Orcon-2degrees merger. (more…)

What the 2degrees-Orcon merger means for competition

Last week the Commerce Commission published “a statement of preliminary issues” on the 2degrees-Orcon merger. It says the Commission will allow the merger to go ahead if it doesn’t reduce market competition. On a simple level that question looks straightforward. There are about 90 retail telecommunications companies in New Zealand. Removing one through a merger may not make much difference. Yet…

Selling broadband and energy together

Connections between telecommunications and the energy sector are not new. They could soon become more important. (more…)

How the Orcon-2degrees merger affects market competition -

Simple answer is ‘less than you might think in the short term, but watch this space’. Orcon’s merger with 2degrees became official on New Year’s Eve. The move brings together New Zealand’s third largest retail telco with the fourth largest. As a consolidation play, it will alter the market dynamics at the margin. It is not a radical competitive reset. Let’s put it in perspective At the time of…

Oz telco consolidation continues. Fibre and data centre owner Vocus and consumer/business carrier and service provider M2 are merging to create what they are calling a “full-service vertically integrated telco”. Assuming shareholders agree and the plan gets nodded through by regulatory authorities — both seem likely — they will merge early next year to become Australia’s fourth largest telco. The…

Vocus Communications chairman David Spence was in Auckland this week to open his company’s new Albany data centre. Spence has a long history in the internet and communications industries. He served as CEO at Australia’s Ozemail. Disclosure, I worked for the company as Australian Netguide editor. Later Spence ran Unwired, a company that pioneered WiMax wireless internet services. In addition to…

Technology no longer stops working or fails. Instead, it has ‘issues’. This is particularly true in telecommunications. We had problems with a site hosted by Orcon. The company told me it was having “issues with a server”. The ‘issue’ meant it stopped working for around 24 hours and was flaky for days after. In other words it was broken. When customers on Telecom NZ’s XT network had problems with…