The Development and Implication of Free ISPs in New Zealand

Abstract

The New Zealand telecommunications experience illustrates the process of competition in a market for network services characterised by technological change and minimal regulation. The story of free ISPs is merely one episode in the battle of Telecom and Clear for the New Zealand telecommunications market. It was enabled by a complex combination of regulation contractual choices and an unanticipated surge of the Internet. Despite certain static inefficiencies the free ISPs have brought a considerable number of dynamic efficiencies that should be taken into account when evaluating New Zealand's light-handed policy regime in this industry.