Gender-confused footwear cliché apart, Doc Reynolds will have his work cut out for him at Telecom.

Yesterday, there was stirring at Telecom suggesting someone (Helen Twose?) had got hold of early confirmation that Dr Paul Reynolds of BT Wholesale will take over after Theresa Gattung and today... there's the announcement.

Reynolds will head over to NZ end of September and be based at Telecom's new HQ in Auckland - the move to the Big Smoke is yet another two-finger salute to the government, to say thank you for the new regulation I reckon.

The question is, how will Reynolds approach his new role? Will he do a BT, and bash Telecom into new regulatory shape and get broadband off the social agenda in NZ? Or, will he be a gamekeeper turned poacher and use the experience gleaned at BT to delay and stall further, which is what Telecom has done so far?

Around 2010, when the first real effects of regulation may come in, Telecom can celebrate having successfully staved off efforts to rein in its natural monopoly for two decades. No other telco in the world can do that.