ZDNet.com.au recently reported that New Zealand’s Commerce Commission (ComCom) just announced that it is open to proposals for the rollout of a single, open access LTE (Long Term Evolution) network to fulfill the country’s 4G needs.

Chairman of the Telecommunications Industry Group, Rob Spray, first brought up the idea of a shared network in December 2009 and said that in New Zealand’s market, individual LTE networks would be impractical. By deploying a single network, the number of base transmission stations in the country could be doubled from 2,500 to 5.000.

Ernie Newman, chief executive of the Telecom Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) is also open to this idea of a single network, but emphasized the great need to offer open access, saying: “We would not want three providers coming together and blocking access. There would need to be a structure to allow others to enter on fair and reasonable terms.”