Wellington, July 26 NZPA - The Telecommunications Users Association (Tuanz) wants Telecom to be more open about its plans for voluntary structural separation.

The call for Telecom to "declare its hand" came as Tuanz gave guarded acceptance of some changes the company is seeking to its undertakings for operational separation.

The undertakings, which set out the requirements for splitting Telecom into three separate business units, came into effect in March 2008.

In a statement today, Tuanz chief executive Ernie Newman said that each time Telecom requested variations from its operational separation undertakings, the pressure for it to declare its hand on voluntary structural separation increased.

Tuanz would strongly support a move to voluntary structural separation provided it was not imposed by the Government.

In relation to Telecom's request to change the undertakings, Tuanz said it had "cautiously acknowledged the case for Telecom to be relieved of some of the more onerous requirements ... but with caveats".

It accepted at face value the argument that requiring Telecom to meet the current deadline to migrate customers into a new wholesale broadband service could expose end users to some risk of service failure, Mr Newman said.

But if Telecom was given relief, Tuanz would not want that to be taken as a signal the Government would grant variations any time there was slippage in a timetable.

"We also see little merit in forcing Telecom to develop new operating systems designed in an earlier environment, when the move to ultra fast broadband (UFB) will potentially make this investment redundant."

Thirdly, Telecom wants to remove a requirement that it migrate 17,000 customers onto a new VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) over copper service by the end of this year.

Mr Newman said Tuanz could live with some modest extension of time.

In contrast to the Tuanz position, Internet NZ said it strongly opposed Telecom's request for changes.

Policy director Jordan Carter said the changes Telecom was seeking would effectively stop operational separation.

Regardless of whether Telecom was a player in the UFB world, the copper access network was going to be a mainstay of telecommunications services for years to come.

"Completing the changes charted in 2007 is absolutely essential to guaranteeing competition and its outcomes of improving services and prices for broadband and telecommunications users."

A debate about the operational separation framework would be a key part of the conversation it Telecom did start a structural separation process, Mr Carter said.

When Telecom asked for the changes to the undertakings in May, the company said it was fully investigating structural separation in order to participate in the Government's UFB initiative.

The UFB initiative would fundamentally reshape the structure of the entire telecommunications industry in this country, Telecom said.

Submissions on Telecom's request for changes to the undertakings closed on Friday.