Structural separation and the role of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in New Zealand's UFB Initiative.

The political perception of New Zealand's broadband market performance as 'poor' has underpinned many significant changes to the telecommunications policy and regulatory environments since 2001. Most recently, this has been manifested in substantial government subsidies by way of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for an ultra-fast broadband (UFB) network that promises to deliver fibre connections with upload/download speeds of 100Mbps/50Mbps to 75% of New Zealanders by 2019. In this context, the paper examines the different PPPs with respect to allocation of task and risks between private and public parties. We conclude that problems with the UFB initiative might emerge as demand risks are not sufficiently specified which might slow broadband adoption in New Zealand.