The Commerce Commission's latest jab against Telecom is to allow CallPlus and ihug unconstrained wholesale bitstream access to its DSL network. In English, that means the two rival ISPs can now access Telecom's JetStream service at its highest possible speed (that is, 7.6Mbit/s). Not, as previously, at a bandwidth-limit arbitrarily decided by Theresa (currently 3.5Mbit/s).

However, Telecom has obviously managed to be pretty hardball, or at least cunning, in its negotiations with Telecommunications Commissioner David Webb (one of three commissioners who together form the Commerce Commission). Ihug's general manager of regulatory affairs, David Diprose, tells Juha Saarinen he's baffled at the cost of unconstrained wholesale access: $27.87 a month, which the Commission reckons should work out to a retail price of $33.38. Diprose had been hoping for wholesale access at $20-$22 under his interpretation of the Commission's model.

Diprose says $27.87 would make for an unprofitable service, so while ihug is still digesting the latest developments, it looks like no immediate change could result. Score a short term victory for Telecom cunning. The medium and long term cost of winding up customers still further is yet to be determined