Report Proves Telecommunications Reforms Needed - Minister of Communications Media Statement

New Zealand is making progress in telecommunications performance compared with other countries but needs to move much faster, says Communications Minister David Cunliffe.

Mr Cunliffe has released the latest Ministry of Economic Development telecommunications benchmarking report, assessing the performance of the New Zealand telecommunications services market against other OECD countries.

"While New Zealand's performance, especially with broadband Internet uptake, has improved in absolute terms, we are in a competitive international race and our relative performance has not improved," Mr Cunliffe said.

The data covers the period to June 2006 and pre-dates the December passing of Telecommunications Amendment Act, which provides for the operational separation of Telecom and "unbundling" the local telephone loop to promote competition.

It also predates the 7 March Statistics New Zealand survey that showed broadband subscribers rose by nearly 30 percent in the six months to 30 September 2006.

It finds that New Zealand has good broadband access availability, but that uptake of broadband as of June 2006 was an unchanged 22nd place out of the 30 Organisation for Economic and Cooperation (OECD) member countries.

"This shows clearly why substantial reform of our telecommunications policy was necessary," Mr Cunliffe said.

"The legislation implementing that reform enjoyed broad support in Parliament, passing by 119 votes to two. We are now giving urgency to implementation. I look forward to broadband uptake increasing substantially as the new policy regime takes effect over the next six to 12 months."

Mr Cunliffe said the report showed some services on which New Zealand compared favourably with OECD countries.

"But in general, there is a significant gap between New Zealand's pricing performance and that of countries in the top rankings of the OECD. We are working hard and fast to ensure Kiwis get the internationally competitive services we need for our economic transformation."

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