The regulatory regime in place today is supposed to be as light handed as possible so as to encourage investment in the telecommunications infrastructure. Given the number of times Vodafone and Telecom have both threatened to stop investing, on the surface this seems to be the right approach.

However, when you consider the astonishing amount of money the mobile phone network operators charge in this country you'd have to say it's not hard to make a buck in the mobile market. Given the low levels of regulatory interference and the high levels of demand for mobile services, why is it that Telstra feels it cannot invest here?

The answer is simple: the whole mobile market, if not the entire telecommunications market itself, is heading for a fall and Telstra doesn't want to be caught up in it on the wrong side of an investment decision. Better to play the aggrieved wholesale partner and keep its money in Australia where it seems likely Telstra will be investing in a brand new 3G network and throwing out its perfectly good existing infrastructure.

But if there's anything the mobile market has taught us it's this: the Kiwi Share is a red herring. New Zealanders are willing to pay for local calls and pay handsomely.

Cellphones outnumber landlines these days by a huge margin and the only advantage having a landline seems to bestow on its user is the ability to also buy a DSL broadband service from Telecom or one of its resellers. So why do we continue with the misbegotten belief that we're firstly getting free local calls and why does Wellington believe that New Zealanders would rise up and storm the Beehive should any government try to remove that right?