2degrees has quickly taken 5% of the New Zealand mobile market by charging (USD) 15 to 31 cents/minute. They've now introduced 3G data at prices between (USD) 11 & 14/cents per gigabyte.  Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone were doing what duopolists prefer, ripping off customers for (USD) 62 cents/minute. 

     In France, the planned entry of Iliad/Free as the fourth mobile in 2012 is already bringing down prices, Merrill Lynch believes. New entrants are forcing the big 3 to drop mobile prices in Canada, long far more expensive than the U.S. for the same service. All of this is just what you'd expect where competition is weak. Bringing in more competitors is a natural solution, which is what the U.S. broadband plan is hoping will happen around 2015 because of added spectrum.

       New Zealand recognizes more competitors are unlikely for landlines in less than a decade, if then. They consider the result unacceptable, because weak competition is not enough to persuade TNZ or anyone else to upgrade to a world-class fiber network. So they've decided to spend $1.5B to bring fiber to 3/4ths of the country, with a dozen bidders including Telecom applying. Telecom has agreed to fully split wholesale and retail in order to qualify.