Tpp Many Networks?

Article written by Andrew Seybold, posted 3rd June, 2007

For the past two years, I have been to New Zealand to speak at a great conference called Convergence, a Wireless and Broadband Forum event. My visits were hosted by the New Zealand of Trade and Enterprise and each year I had an opportunity to talk with the Communications Minister, David Cunliffe, as well as hear his speeches at the same event.

This year, Mr. Cunliffe spoke about auctioning 100 MHz of spectrum in the 2.3-GHz band and how that could help New Zealand reach its goal of providing broadband access to all of New Zealand’s four million people.

He told me the government would not dictate the technology to be used in this spectrum and while WiMAX was of interest to a number of companies that wanted to bid on it, it would not be limited to WiMAX.

On June 1, I received an email from one of my contacts in New Zealand with an article about the government’s revised plans for this spectrum. It has now decided to combine the auction of the 2.3-GHz band with spectrum in the 2.5-GHz band. The rationale for combining the spectrum auctions is to “offer six different companies sufficient spectrum to launch a national WiMAX service, while still reserving some for community use.”

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