Submissions on telecommunications services sought

Commerce Commission seeks submissions on deregulating selected Schedule 1 telecommunications services

The Commerce Commission today released the preliminary findings of its five yearly review of whether to investigate deregulating selected services in Schedule 1 of the Telecommunications Act 2001 (the Act).

The Commission’s preliminary view is that there are reasonable grounds to investigate removing Spark’s resale services from Schedule 1. The Commission believes all other services in Schedule 1 should remain.

Currently there are three Spark resale services in Schedule 1 of the Act:
• Local phone service;
• Exchange-based calling services and value-added services; and
• Individual services that Spark sells in bundles.

The above resale services, which were originally introduced in 2001 and amended in 2011, have enabled retail service providers (RSPs) to offer retail fixed-line phone services without having to invest in their own infrastructure.

Telecommunications Commissioner, Dr Stephen Gale said, “Wholesale services including Chorus’ UBA and UFB-based wholesale services are becoming widely available and appear to compete with Spark’s resale services. Our preliminary view is that due to the increasing availability of these types of competing wholesale services, the importance of resale access has diminished since our review in 2011.”

“We consider that the other regulated services should stay in Schedule 1 of the Act, because they remain important wholesale inputs that support the supply of vibrant and competitive retail voice and broadband services,” Dr Gale said.

Submissions can be sent to telco@comcom.govt.nz no later than 5pm, 23 May 2016.

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