Eighteen months ago, in this very blog, I warned that legislation breaking up Telecom was hardly a cause for celebration. "Irrespective of the legislation, Telecom... [are] going to fight – even if they have little chance of winning. Why would they do that? Because every year's delay brings another billion dollars profit from the existing monopoly along with the possibility of political change." Last week they revealed the latest in those delaying tactics; the "naked DSL" debacle.

Naked DSL refers to broadband connections that aren't tied to telephone line rentals. From last week Telecom will allow them, but not to existing broadband customers and only at a connection rate of 50 customers per week split amongst competing providers. That means each of Telecom's competitors can sign up a heady five to ten new naked DSL'ers per week.

Orcon's retail manager Larrie Moore isn't impressed. "What is the point of launching a product that we can only sign up one or two customers a day on?" he said last Thursday.“The early adopters who are most likely to use this service already have broadband, and Telecom knows this. Not allowing existing broadband users to change to naked DSL is going to severely restrict the attractiveness of any proposition that we take to market.”

To put that 50-per-week in perspective, if naked DSL were extended to Telecom's existing broadband user base it would take around a century to convert everyone.

Telecom claim this restriction will be lifted within a month and that they're on track to deliver naked DSL to everyone by December. We'll see. Let's hope there are no last minute "technical difficulties". But let's take them at their word. That means the wide world of competing broadband is about to take off. You can start preparing for it now. I'll have a How To in a day or two. Watch this space...