Mr. Marcus Matthews:

Yes, there are. We have outlined some of what would be required. We addressed the costs, including wholesale access. Backhaul is a major problem. The Deputy made the point that in many cases it is cheaper to dig the road than to buy it. That is a core issue that would have to be corrected. The subject matter experts who are present could tell the committee a significant amount about that, how it works and how it does not work compared with other countries. It is clear that we need to look at a regulator pricing model and, for backhaul providers that are directly or indirectly owned by the State, we need to consider implementing a ratcheting mechanism to drive those costs over time. We could tie that with an investment into the companies such that shareholders are not losing out and we avoid those types of problems while getting a good quality series of fibre extensions and a good scenario whereby regional ISPs can instantaneously start delivering more connectivity. That is a core issue to be addressed behind the scenes in this context.

There are other issues such as communications timelines in terms of different State entities. We would probably need to establish a communications management strategy, which is not dealt with in our written submission, and would address issues such as a fault or radio interference from another company. It is for ComReg to enforce the law and state that one cannot put something up in a particular place and start interfering with pre-existing equipment and other businesses. These types of things can take a very long time and that is a frustration for regional ISPs in the industry because their customers will question why their service has suddenly slowed down. It doe no good for the businesses to say that they can do nothing about it because they are responsible for enforcing the law. There are many issues behind the scenes that need to be fixed, but we could be here all day talking about them.