Phone: Alistair Dixon, Judith Speight, Jennifer Northover, Michael Wallmannsberger.

In attendance: Jordan Carter, Richard Wood.

Opened: 3.04pm.

1. Apologies

David Diprose, Johnny Martin, Keith Davidson – accepted by the meeting.

2. Minutes of Last meeting – 3 May 2007

Minutes adopted as a true and correct record.

3. Action Points/Matters Arising from the Previous Minutes

Regarding guest speakers - Immediate priority is identifying guest speakers for the Digital Summit.

Rural broadband – We are awaiting the release of the TSO document.

CyberLaw site has been set up

Letter has been sent to Wellington City Council congratulating them on their Broadband activity

Public Policy committee held lunch with CyberLaw fellow

InternetNZ submitted on Structural Separation

A welcome event was held for CyberLaw fellow

4. Broadband Campaign

a(i). Operational Separation/Structural Separation

InternetNZ filed a submission on Telecom’s structural separation proposal. The Minister’s subsequent statements on Telecom’s proposal were in alignment, with the Government clear that they will keep moving on the Operational Separation process. It is also clear that the work done with industry was useful and congratulations were expressed towards Jordan Carter, Simon Riley and Michael Wigley, who prepared the submission. Simon noted that Local Government put in a submission and are now engaged in the process.

The question of timing of the draft determination was raised.

AP. Check with Minister’s office as to when draft determination will be issued.

The discussion moved onto other issues. The Ministry for the Environment is looking at environmental standards – Jordan is attending a meeting in Wellington and InternetNZ may file a submission. The Ministry of Culture and Heritage is looking at convergence between broadcasting and internet and how that should be managed in a regulatory setting – this will be further explored.

AP. Jordan to identify any requirements following from MFE and MCH processes.

a(ii). Industry Working Groups

The TCF industry working groups involving telecommunications firms and ISPs appear to have been doing a good job through meetings two days a week involving a huge commitment from these companies.

Telecom’s standard terms proposals for LLU and Co-Location have been released, coming in at 1200 pages. Alistair noted two issues to keep in mind, firstly service level agreements and secondly implementation timeline. The documents propose the bulk of unbundling would not occur until early 2009 and it was suggested InternetNZ could investigate overseas examples, perhaps getting information from BT or Ofcom.

DPF stated, and it was generally agreed, that leadership is generally with the telcos and ISPs but that the SLAs and timeline are two areas, at least, that we can keep an eye on.

Jordan noted the reading load is severe for the deadline for submissions and invited others to partake in the reading process.

AP. Jordan to coordinate reading and submission process on LLU and Co-Location outputs.

b(i) Rural Broadband

This is waiting for the TSO discussion document.

b(ii) Operational Separation

It was suggested that there is a need to find out what Telecom thinks about its option being rejected, but noted that we are awaiting the new CEO appointment. In the meantime the operational separation process continues and the result can be expected to be similar to what has been proposed by the MED.

There was a discussion about how much resource should be put into a legal critique of the draft determination when it is released, given the level of expenditure in this budget area already this year. It was agreed it could be a crucial point to influence the process, and that the decision will have to wait until the content of the document is known.

b(iii) Fibre to the home

David reported that InternetNZ wrote to the Government regarding the need for a Government task force on fibre to the home. The Minister would rather have a working group that inputs into the Digital Summit and sought names. However, given timelines and the difficulty of providing names without terms of reference, Jordan proposed InternetNZ should organise a working group to create a white paper as input into the Digital Summit. That group to include Peter Macaulay, Simon Riley, Judith Speight, and David Farrar and aim to have a discussion paper by end of July.

There was further discussion about the need to take leadership in fibre or be an effective catalyst in getting politicians to take is seriously. It was discussed that there is lack of interest/resources within Government to move ahead on projects such as stocktaking fibre assets and identifying fibre policy options. Simon suggested money may need to be found to involve specialists.

AP. Jordan to initiate working party on fibre to the home

AP. Jordan to further discuss with David regarding funding of specialist expertise around fibre.

Discussion turned to NGN and concern that more FUD might be expected.

AP. Staff to ask Telecom for a briefing on its NGN.

5. Tel.Con.8, TUANZ Telecommunications Day, and other Events

TelCon 8 is on June 26 in Auckland. David, Jordan and Peter are all speaking or on panels. Jordan will submit a paper from InternetNZ.

TUANZ Telecommunications Day occurred on May 31^st in Wellington. Jordan noted that a European regulatory speaker presented a comprehensive rebuttal of Telecom’s arguments. The Minister announced the new Telecommunications Commissioner and said no to Telecom’s proposal for a new regulatory framework.

Richard Prebble gave an interesting speech identifying past errors and expressing his view that a strong civil judicial approach to regulation would be better than having a commissioner, and that the Commerce Commission should have unlimited budget to go after the big guys.

6. Digital Strategy 2.0 Summit

A tiger team has been set up for the Day 3 Agenda and will meet in late June.

Simon reported on progress for Day 1 and 2 involving joint planning groups being run by MED – The Digital Strategy Summit will be a launch pad for an ongoing work programme, not a talkfest. A structure has been set up and is expected to ramp up quickly, as it will need to.

7. Copyright

There has been an extension to July 11 for the Select Committee to report back. Lobbying continues and there was some discussion/speculation about what might come of it all.

8. Peering

Simon reported that the external group is close to preparing a draft paper, which will be circulated back to those consulted. Richard noted that Telecom is putting a tuned peering proposal to the industry in early July.

9. Parliament/Self Regulation Updates

a. Parliament Internet Caucus

The first Parliamentary Internet Caucus involved a discussion of Digital Television involving Russell Brown and Jason Paris. Sixteen MPs attended. A couple of potential subjects to propose for future Caucus events were discussed – possibly NetSafe. The meeting was a success.

AP. Staff to circulate MP survey to the Committee to help choose future topics.

10. CyberLaw Fellow

Management committee will be meeting. The website is up and running. A question was raised about where Judit’s final report is, given original publication date is passed.

AP. Staff to check with Victoria University what the publication date of Judit’s research is.

11. Anti-Spam

David reported that the DIA has appointed a manager for the Anti-Spam Unit; Joe Stewart is ex Ministry of Justice. It was also noted with sadness that the IT manager for the Unit died of a heart attack recently.

David reports the relationship with the DIA is excellent and DIA plans about ten meetings around the country with business groups and Chambers of Commerce to educate on spam.  InternetNZ will be able to present at meetings.

The ISP Spam Code of Practice closes for public submissions on June 18.

Whitelisting was discussed and a meeting on June 19 noted with the Marketing Association and others. The general enthusiasm of Marketing Association’s Keith Norris was noted and it was suggested to involve him in the broader work of the Public Policy committee.

AP. Staff to invite Keith Norris to join Public Policy Committee

12. Related organisations

a. NetSafe

Noted that the Hectors World launch went well.

b. ISPANZ

The ISP Association will meet to discuss its structure ahead of its August AGM and has invited Keith to facilitate that meeting. Jordon will attend in his place.

c. TUANZ

Chris noted that there are possibilities for InternetNZ speakers to present at TUANZ After 5s this year.

13.       General business

Judith and Peter were congratulated for being selected as finalists in the 2007 Champions of Digital Literacy Awards, to be presented at the Certiport Pathways Conference in Florida in July. It was suggested a press announcement would be in order.

AP. Staff to prepare a press release congratulating Judith and Peter on their finalist status in Digital Literarcy Awards.
 

Meeting closed: 4.45pm.

Date of next meeting: 5 July 2007, possibly in Auckland.

 
Signed as a true and correct record:    

……………………………………………   

David Farrar, Vice President, CHAIR