Exactly...
<rant> I personally thought Saturn (now TelstraSaturn) had the right idea, pity they targetted the wrong audience in the first instance. They targetted the richie rich areas and put their cables overhead (and then had to put their cables underground), the customer takeup wasn't that great, if they targetted the sub-socieconomic areas first, then they would have been fine as the customer take up would have been desireable and needless to say, the overhead cables is a standard feature in the getto. If you guys are not convinced, go for a drive down poets corner, murder triange, etc (or Otara if you're in Auckland) and then drive through Harrowfield, etc and tell me the difference with the density of the Sky Digital Dishes. </rant>
You're right. In fact I saw a sky dish attached to a run down old wooden house (really a shack) not much larger than a set of public toilets south of Waiuru on a trip to Welly once. Made me laugh.
The fact is that if a provider used the local loop, Telecom is still in the picture charging the market entrants the Rack Unit telehousing and a lease for the twisted pair between the local exchange and the customers demarcation point. Also, who is providing the link between the provider and the local exchange ?
Well Telstra has a national fibre trunk so there can be some competition between Telecom and them at the wholesale trunk access end. Regards