Hon Paul Goldsmith
Minister for Media
& Communications

The Government is progressing a suite of regulatory changes aimed at improving telecommunication services for rural communities and promote economic growth, says Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith.

 “World-class connectivity services are vital to Kiwis’ everyday lives. This Government is ensuring we have the right regulatory settings in place for this important market, to support competition, foster innovation and help stimulate economic growth.

 “Better connectivity, especially for rural areas means improved reliability for everyone- businesses, people accessing digital healthcare, and remote learning for kids. More services also improves competition driving down the monthly cost of telecommunications for households and businesses.

 “One of the key changes I am making is removing regulatory barriers for the smaller local fibre companies, enabling them to deliver other wholesale telecommunication services, so they can  offer different types of connectivity to people in hard to reach areas.

 The suite of changes includes:

• Permanently reinstate the rights that allow fibre providers to access shared property to install fibre in certain circumstances and make minor adjustments to the rights to improve their effectiveness.
• Mandate membership in an industry dispute resolution scheme for retail telecommunications providers with revenue over $10 million.
• Expand applicability of the telecommunications regulatory regime to offshore providers, where relevant to the services they offer.
• Amendments to the company constitutions of Enable Networks, Tuatahi First Fibre and Northpower Fibre to expand permitted activities, to align with Chorus.

“Reliable and high-quality digital connectivity networks improve productivity and are essential to growing our economy and easing the cost of living,” Mr Goldsmith says.

 More information on the changes is available on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s website here: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-technology/it-communications-and-broadband/our-role-in-the-ict-sector

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