Zealand Telecommunications Research Articles

Using spectrum allocations to address indigenous rights claims: The case of New Zealand

In February 2022, the New Zealand Government announced that a yet-to-be-formed “Māori Spectrum Entity” would “receive an ongoing allocation of 20 percent of future national commercial spectrum allocations, at no cost.” This is in addition to the 25 percent of spectrum designated for 5G technology (mid-band, 3.4–3.8 GHz) under the Māori Spectrum Working Group agreement. The novel arrangement, which creates a perpetual obligation rather than simply a one-off transfer, appears to settle a long-standing dispute between the Māori indigenous people of New Zealand and the Government regarding a claim under an 1840 treaty that Māori were entitled to a share of spectrum due to their historic property rights and the Government's obligation to ensure that their language could flourish. Further support apparently derives from New Zealand's obligations as a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.The decision is notable for the lack of analysis of the expected effects on long-standing sector competition and efficiency objectives in the New Zealand telecommunications industry. Importantly, it introduces a tension into New Zealand spectrum policy between the (historic) allocation of spectrum rights to achieve the most economically efficient future outcome for the benefit of all New Zealanders (including all Māori), and the (post-memorandum) allocation where a preferential set-aside has been created to address a narrow distributional objective in spectrum “ownership” and governance involving only a subset of the population identifying as Māori.While raising the latter question, this paper addresses the competition and economic efficiency issues absent so far in official consideration of the arrangement. Using comparative economic and policy analysis, we find that while wealth and control is transferred from the Crown to the Māori entity, the Māori entity faces very different opportunities and incentives to deploy the spectrum in the most socially-useful manner compared to commercial operators. The “set-aside” creates both artificial scarcity for commercial spectrum and alters the strategic options for all parties due to the Māori rights being perpetual and not subject to the same terms and conditions as commercial spectrum. Additional burdens are imposed on New Zealand telecommunications service consumers not borne by those in jurisdictions without such policies, and relative to the counterfactual of full open auction of the relevant rights.We conclude that the agreement effectively subjugates sector competition and efficiency objectives to distributional concerns. Furthermore, granting specific policy development rights to the Māori entity suggests the agreement is not simply a vehicle for administering Māori spectrum but instead establishes a constitutional “co-governance” partnership between a state agency and the Māori entity governing future New Zealand spectrum policy. These fundamental changes to spectrum policy are unprecedented internationally.

Incentives and optimal time of investment in New Zealand’s building-blocks regulation of its FTTH open-access network

Understanding the incentive structure and the effects on the timing of investment of any regulatory regime is of outmost importance to all stakeholders. A fundamental question in the literature on broadband investment and regulation, articulated in Cambini and Jiang (2009), asks: “what impacts regulation imposes on firms’ investment behavior in broadband communications, impetus or hindrance, and how regulatory regimes should be designed to foster the incentive to invest?”. New Zealand’s Part 6 of the amended New Zealand Telecommunications Act (2018 New Regulatory Framework) describes a new regulatory framework largely based on the Commerce Act of 1986 that applies to regulation of electricity lines, gas pipelines and airports. This is known as the Building Blocks Model (BBM) approach. Biggar (2004) defines the BBM approach to regulation as “a tool for spreading (or amortising) the expenditure of the regulated firm over time so as to ensure a path of revenue or prices which has the property that the present value of the firm’s allowed revenue is equal to the present value of the firm’s expenditure”. In New Zealand the Framework, and the BBM approach in particular, are aimed to regulate Fibre Fixed-Line Access Services or FFLAS. Regulation is to be achieved by using “price-quality paths” and “information disclosure determinations”, regulatory tools in use in the utility sector. The redetermination of the price-quality path is based on estimation of the price or revenue path that would provide the regulated entity with a normal return taking into account the forthcoming regulatory period and the expected future price-quality path in future periods. This paper will build upon and extend main results in Borrmann and Brunekreeft (2011), to investigate the optimal time of investment under some directive that follows the new regulatory norms. It also focuses on identifying the source of incentives in the determination of building blocks, following (Biggar, 2004). The leading role of New Zealand in the successful deployment of a national Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network and the consequential overhaul of the telecommunications market suggest the analysis of the new regulatory approach in terms of time of investment and incentives is not only timely but also quite relevant.

New Zealand Telecommunications: The actual situation – legislation and regulations

A recent paper (Gul, Sarkar and Gutierrez, 2016) offers recommendations for changes to existing telecommunications legislation and regulations in New Zealand. These recommendations are based on a review of the history of legislation governing the sector and market development since liberalisation in 1989. We have identified key omissions in this review which have prompted us to revisit the analysis and conclusions. We find that the evidence is insufficient to support the paper’s recommendations.

New Zealand Telecommunications: The actual situation – legislation and regulations

A recent paper (Gul, Sarkar and Gutierrez, 2016) offers recommendations for changes to existing telecommunications legislation and regulations in New Zealand. These recommendations are based on a review of the history of legislation governing the sector and market development since liberalisation in 1989. We have identified key omissions in this review which have prompted us to revisit the analysis and conclusions. We find that the evidence is insufficient to support the paper’s recommendations.

Resilience and fragility of the telecommunication network to seismic events

This paper provides an overview on the physical and functional performance of the New Zealand telecommunication network following the 14 November 2016 Kaikōura earthquake (Mw 7.8). Firstly, the paper provides an overview of the New Zealand telecommunications infrastructure. Secondly, the paper presents preliminary information on the impacts of the Kaikōura earthquake on the telecommunication network following the format proposed by [1] for post-earthquake assessment and resilience analysis of infrastructure systems, namely: extent of earthquake-induced physical impacts on the components of the telecommunication networks, identified according to a proposed taxonomy; main observed dependency issues; identification of resilience attributes and strategies that allowed an effective and rapid reinstatement of the telecommunication service. Finally lessons learned and research needs are discussed.

A review of New Zealand Telecommunications: Legislation, Regulations, and Recommendations

The telecommunications industry is growing and changing at a very high pace. To keep up with this high pace and fast changing technologies countries need strong legislation and an efficient regulatory system to promote fair competition in industry. In this paper a review of existing telecommunications’ legislation and regulations in New Zealand (NZ) is conducted. The paper highlights the existing legislation in the country and discusses the organizations responsible for regulating the underlying laws. Finally, recommendations for changes of the existing legislation and regulations in NZ are provided which are based on the current and on-going demand for telecommunication services.

A review of New Zealand Telecommunications: Legislation, Regulations, and Recommendations

The telecommunications industry is growing and changing at a very high pace. To keep up with this high pace and fast changing technologies countries need strong legislation and an efficient regulatory system to promote fair competition in industry. In this paper a review of existing telecommunications’ legislation and regulations in New Zealand (NZ) is conducted. The paper highlights the existing legislation in the country and discusses the organizations responsible for regulating the underlying laws. Finally, recommendations for changes of the existing legislation and regulations in NZ are provided which are based on the current and on-going demand for telecommunication services.

Travelling technocrats, embodied knowledges: Globalising privatisation in telecoms and water

The decade from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s was a key moment in the unfolding of the global privatisation agenda. During this decade privatisation shifted from a nation-state project to become part of the structural adjustment measures associated with economic globalisation. These measures were not only promoted by international institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, but by a range of other organisations and actors who have received little attention. In particular, virtually no attention has been paid to the mid-level technocrats who enacted privatisation strategies and techniques. This paper focuses on these actors through the cases of New Zealand telecommunications engineers and British water engineers. In discussing the significance of these actors we argue for the unpacking of the messy histories, geographies and sociologies of privatisation using both publicly available documents and ethnographic methods. This will allow us to understand why certain courses of action were pursued in particular times and places, why other actions dropped out, and will reveal more about the national imaginaries and embodied knowledges underpinning the globalisation of privatisation.

From Competition to Regulation: New Zealand Telecommunications Sector Performance 1987-2007

Using an efficiency-based framework this paper analyses the performance of New Zealand's telecommunications sector under competition law-based sector governance (the period from 1987 to 2001) and under industry-specific regulation (2001 to 2007). The framework considers the productive allocative and dynamic efficiency effects of each regime and the nature of the strategic interaction of sector participants. The analysis reveals that substantial gains in all forms of efficiency were achieved during the 1990s both compared to historic New Zealand and contemporary OECD benchmarks. Under industry-specific regulation however transfers to consumers appear to have reduced transaction costs have increased and delays are being incurred in the deployment of new applications and technologies relative to the competition law regime as participants engage in strategic gaming with politicians and the regulator and respond predictably to the range of incentives offered under the regulatory regime. The paper concludes that on balance in the New Zealand circumstances the regime based predominantly upon competition law appears to have outperformed the industry-specific regulatory regime albeit due in large part to sector participant interaction shaped by contractual obligations imposed by the government on the incumbent which have prevailed unchanged under both regimes.

The Determinants of Boundary Spanner Stress and Managerial Intervention Activity in a Major New Zealand Telecommunications Organization: An Exploratory Investigation

ABSTRACT With increasing recognition being given to the importance of organizational boundary spanning activity, there is an associated need to determine, and ultimately manage, the stress experienced by those occupying boundary positions. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the individual and organizational consequences of employee stress, research considering the stress experienced by boundary role incumbents has been limited to one key set of influences commonly termed “role stressors.” Additionally, there has been little direct consideration given to those factors or processes that precede, and ultimately determine, the design and implementation of targeted stress management programmes. Using a multiple case study research design, we present findings suggesting that boundary spanning employees are subject to a multitude of work-related stressors. Moreover, a large number of factors are identified that influence managerial responses to these stressors. These factors can be distinguished according to whether they influence managerial perceptions of the need for intervention, or the subsequent design and delivery of a potential solution.

The Development and Implications of Free ISPs in New Zealand

The New Zealand telecommunications experience illustrates the process of competition in a market for network services, characterised by technological change and minimal regulation. The story of free ISPs is merely one episode in the battle of Telecom and Clear for the New Zealand telecommunications market. It was enabled by a complex combination of regulation, contractual choices and an unanticipated surge of the Internet. Despite certain static inefficiencies, the free ISPs have brought a considerable number of dynamic efficiencies that should be taken into account when evaluating New Zealand's light-handed policy regime in this industry.

Changing Employment Practices in the New Zealand Telecommunications Sector: Workforce Reorganisation and Restructuring at Telecom New Zealand

In line with the large-scale reforms instituted by the New Zealand government in the 1980s, the New Zealand post office was broken up and a state owned enterprise (SO£), the Telecom Corporation of New Zealand (TCNZ), was formed in 1987. In 1990 TCNZ was fully privatised with the major shareholders, Bell Atlantic and Ameritech, being US owned companies. There followed a decade of organisational and structural change. Between 1990 and 2000 the fulltime workforce at TCNZ was reduced from 16 000 to less than 6000 fulltime workers as the firm evolved into a new leaner model (TCNZ annual reports). Such workforce reductions were largely achieved through outsourcing and the introduction of new technologies. But the scale of downsizing at TCNZ raises questions about the possible loss of core knowledge and the long-term sustainability of these strategies. Transaction costs associated with 'relationship management' -such as, the coordination and monitoring of outsourced work - may also reduce their effectiveness. This paper draws on transaction costs economics (TCE) and downsizing theories to help explain why firms may choose to either outsource their transactions to the marketplace or perform them in-house. It further examines what the implications of TCE may be for employment relations (ER). This paper suggests that a number of additional factors outside of the traditional TCE analysis also contributed to the restructuring and ER strategies at TCNZ. These included, short-term profit considerations, the size of the New Zealand telecommunications market, TCNZ's continued dominance of its domestic market and the desire to form strategic alliances. Therefore, these additional factors may need to be integrated into the TCE framework if it is to provide a possible model that will assist in analysing the changing workforce structure at TCNZ since deregulation.

The discourse of restructuring: employment in the New Zealand telecommunications industry

Conceptualisations of employment in the New Zealand telecommunications industry are no longer shaped by the notion of a social partnership between union and employer in a national labour market. Rather they are constituted through managerialist discourses in which individual and enterprise are linked in the pursuit of international competitiveness. One consequence of this shift is that workers are more directly exposed to the mechanisms of the market. Drawing from the neo- Foucauldian literature on governmentality, the paper traces qualitative shifts in the discourses and practices governing the employment of workers in the New Zealand telecommunications industry, thereby elucidating the contested processes through which the re-commodification of labour was achieved.

The legacy of the social: market governance and the consumer

the consumer is the identity central to the consolidation of market governance in the New Zealand telecommunications industry. This identity is usually unequivocally associated with the enterprising and individualistic self of neo-liberalism. In this form of self the economic and social are cast as antagonistic, part of the process recently described as the ‘de-socialization’ of economic governance. This paper claims that the legacy of post-war retionalities, in which the citizen was cast as a social being, could not be so easily negated. Mobilizing the identity of the consumer necessarily involved attempts to reforge the links between the economic and social. Rather than marking the ‘death of the social’, the emergence of the consumer involved the mutation of the social into new forms. Two different versions of the consumer are identified. In the first version the economic and the social are recombined in this identified. Attemps are made to constitute the consumer as an inclusive identity encompassing all New Zealanders. The second is a more exclusive version, reflecting the interests of business and major users. In this version the legacy of the social is emptied out of the economic and made manifest in a new form-the social as community. The paper shows how these two versions of the consumer jostled for position during the restructuring of the New Zealand telecommunications industry.

Wireless personal communications services: a New Zealand perspective

Personal communications services (PCS) are anticipated to herald a new era in global telecommunications. In this article, a perspective of some experiences obtained in New Zealand is presented. The topics discussed include: operational considerations, planning aspects, reliability, propagation and environmental aspects. Present-day telecommunications services have been influenced by numerous commercial, regulatory, demographic, and geographic factors peculiar to New Zealand. However, many of the lessons learned have direct relevance to the global telecommunications scene. In particular, contributions already made by New Zealand telecommunications research groups have gained worldwide recognition. The activities of one such group-the Radio Systems Group at the University of Auckland-are also discussed.

The Economic Efficiency of Telecommunications in a Deregulated Market: The case of New Zealand*

This paper estimates the productivity and consumer and producer changes in the New Zealand telecommunications network market between 1987, when it was deregulated, and 1993; as the major firm, Telecom, evolved from a government department to a public company in an environment of light regulation. The growth in productivity is estimated to reduced costs at an annual compound average of 5.6 per cent. The bulk of the substantial gains in consumer surplus has come from price reductions on 1987 consumption levels. There has been marked improvements in the quality of outputs. Shareholders have had a profitable investment.

THE POLITICS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM IN NEW ZEALAND

This paper presents an historical account of the reforms to New Zealand's telecommunications policy which have occurred since 1986. The history is set around three stages: the period leading up to the review of the New Zealand Post Office in 1986; the corporatisation and subsequent privatisation of Telecom New Zealand in 1990; and, the implementation of the so-called ‘light-handed’ regulatory regime since 1990. This paper focuses on the period up to 1990 to address the question why telecommunications reform took place in New Zealand. It is argued that the ideological disposition of the New Zealand Treasury was very influential in determining the outcomes of the reform process. This paper also makes some observations on the broader political aspects of the reform process.

Marconi a Phoney? Change and Expansion in New Zealand Telecommunications in the Interwar Years

Marconi a Phoney? Change and Expansion in New Zealand Telecommunications in the Interwar Years