Living in NZ is always going to be a bit of a technological 'drag'. This is a small market, and one of the poorest OECD nations. For this reason, technology is always going to be a little slow getting here. The situation is even worse for basic infrastructure like: Roads, power lines, telco fibre lines, power stations, etc. The challenge is that:
1. There is little incentive for service providers to upgrade infrastructure if their competitors are not. A small market with just a few players gives little incentive for competitive pricing.
2. There is little incentive to adopt the latest technology if there is no growth in the market. National income in NZ is based on cyclical commodity prices, so with a static population, there is little incentive for increasing capital investment unless you have some important national resource like oil & gas or iron ore. NZ has......very little.
3. There is little incentive to be competitive without a regulatory regime to ensure that result. There is a propensity to use the 'weak regulatory framework' to extort highe revenues from customers.
Businesses however have to make money, or there will be even less spending or service. The question is whether the industry is functioning efficiently, and earnings are adequate.
This article outlines the cost and pricing for the next generation of the telco network. The actual cost is uncertain because it remains to be seen whether service providers offer unlimited capacity. I suspect they will want to offer unlimited capacity where they can otherwise they will lose customers, and there will also be excessive customer churn, i.e. Excessive reconnections.
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