It's deja vu all over again. Telecom convicted of anti-competitive behaviour. Who'd've guessed? Well me for a start.

For those with short memories, a little history:

* June 2010 - 1300 broadband customers to get refunds following Commerce Commission investigation.

* January 2010 - Telecom admits breaching Fair Trading Act - pays back $9.5m to customers. "In a settlement with the Commerce Commission, Telecom New Zealand Limited and Xtra Limited (Telecom) has admitted breaching the Fair Trading Act by misleading more than 130,000 broadband customers."

* February 2008 Telecom to be prosecuted over Go Large promotion. (Remember that campaign? They promised "unlimited data usage and all the internet you can handle" and "maximum speed internet". Yeah, right!)

* September 2007 - The Commerce Commission's quarterly Telecommunications Key Statistics showed Telecom's Go Prepaid Mates' Rates mobile package was 198% more expensive than the OECD average price.

You see the common thread here? The Commerce Commission can't actually prevent monopolists from rorting competitors and the public, but they can seek redress when they do. That's what the latest $12 million fine is all about. But under the government's proposed Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) plan, the Commerce Commission will be locked out from making recommendations about the pricing of and access to UFB services until the end 2019. So we give them $1.5 billion of taxpayers' money to set this up, and they can charge us whatever they like without regulatory oversight. Great!

That's just one disturbing aspect of this ridiculous plan. You'll find more in my column in the May print issue of PC World.