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A member of Te Huarahi Tika Maori Spectrum Trust says the allocation of fourth generation spectrum was a lost opportunity for Maori and the country.
The Government refused to set aside any of the 700 megahertz spectrum and instead sold management rights to Vodafone, Telecom and Two Degrees to use for the next generation of mobile data networks.
Antony Royal, who is also a director of Two Degrees, says by cutting out Maori the Government missed an opportunity to promote innovation and competitiveness, as happened in the 3G spectrum auction.
"What we actually created under the 3G spectrum was bringing to New Zealand a whole new company that has invested in telecommunications and that was a really big deal because everybody thought that Telecom and Vodafone were going to be the ones that forever held on to our ability to use mobile phones. Now with Two Degrees, look at the prices of mobiles and the costs of making calls, it has dropped right down because Maori brought competition to the marketplace and we need to be doing more of this," he says.
Mr Royal says Maori will continue to challenge the Government’s assumption that it owns the spectrum.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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