Bronwyn Howell recently presented at the 5th Annual Regulatory Evolution Summit held in Wellington on 30 March 2011.

New Zealand's 30 Electricity Lines Businesses (ELBs) combined hold assets with an estimated value of over $8.8 billion (Commerce Commission 2012). The vast majority of analysis of the New Zealand electricity sector has focused on generation retailing and transmission activities. Very little...

Bronwyn Howell presented A Pendulous Progression: New Zealand Telecommunications Regulation 1987-2007 at FICORA (Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority) in June 2007.

Bronwyn Howell presented 'The Antipodean Approach: Government Funded Ultra-Fast Broadband Networks' at the PTC Conference, Honolulu January 2012.

Current Comment is an occasional series providing economic commentary on topical issues.

The business of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) requires labour computers and (typically leased) bandwidth. All these elements are generally competitively available both within countries and internationally. The fact that there are few physical or human capital inputs that are specific to ISP...

Bronwyn Howell's presentation at the University of Missouri St Louis USA on 28 September 2011.

Finland and New Zealand are two countries with many geographic social demographic and historic similarities. Their telecommunications markets also demonstrate many superficial similarities. However beneath the superficial performance parallels lie two markets that have developed under...

Imports into New Zealand are tax-free if the duty and GST payable is less than $60. This has resulted in an effective value threshold of between $226 and $399, significantly higher than many of our trading partners. We examine other nations’ thresholds and border practices with a view to...

Both the Australian and New Zealand governments have committed to spend substantial sums in order to bring forward the nationwide deployment of ultra-fast fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband networks. With deployment proceeding apace, two significant questions have arisen regarding the economic,...