Wellington, Dec 18 NZPA - Telecom is asking Communications Minister Stephen Joyce to allow it to make a "small number" of changes to its undertakings on operational separation to allow it flexibility on ultra fast broadband (UFB).

The variation proposal aimed to ensure Telecom's operational separation investment programme could incorporate UFB-related services, processes and capabilities, once those were known, the company said today.

Telecom Wholesale chief executive Matt Crockett said the proposed changes provided the company with the flexibility to determine systems in the short term while it designed new systems and interfaces to be as future-proof as possible given UFB developments.

"Nothing in our request for a variation changes Telecom's bedrock commitment to delivering our equivalence milestones, at the heart of the undertakings, on time and in full. There will be no backsliding," Mr Crockett said.

Telecom wants to re-focus June 2010 and December 2010 Wholesale milestones so that equivalence can be delivered on either new or existing systems.

It also wants to defer the existing June 2010 and December 2010 milestones that require Telecom to deliver that equivalence on predominantly new systems by 12 months.

"Our 2010 undertakings delivery programme is already extremely challenging and we are under enormous pressure to meet the current dates. The result is there is no room for Telecom, or its customers, to pause and understand UFB in order to build the necessary flexibility into our system designs," Mr Crockett said.