MEDIA RELEASE : 10th August 2015

TUANZ (The Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand) has today published on its website a paper which lists the issues it suggests should be covered in the upcoming review of the Telecommunications Act by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).  “We provided this list to MBIE earlier this year and we have released it today in line with our principles of positive leadership and providing credible contributions to debate around the issues” said the CEO of TUANZ, Craig Young.  

“Our focus is on helping New Zealand make the most of the digitally connected world and so we are more interested in the outcomes of any review for users rather than specific details.  To help with this we have suggested a high level list of specific issues we believe are critical to the continued development of our connected economy” Mr Young said.  

Mr Young says that TUANZ is supportive of the current market structure and are keen to see it allow such things as structural separation to fully bed in. TUANZ supports incremental change as required to this structure in the period covered by the review which is the post 2020 environment. This period will be featured as one where fibre services would be the predominant new fixed-connection type given the Government UFB project would be completed and the Crown Fibre contracted fibre pricing would cease to apply. Wireless technology is also likely to be advanced enough to offer reasonable competition to fixed services.

The summary list of issues that TUANZ consider are important to be debated is as follows:

1. We should have an aim of ensuring we continue to have a world leading communications network supporting our economic growth and social development

2. Our services must be competitive with like nations given we are increasingly competing in a global market

3. Funding of user groups to enable credible input should be considered similar to the Australian model in regards to Government funding of ACANN (Australian Communications Consumer Action Network)

4. The need for a TSO and the services included post 2020 should be debated. Questions of its applicability, its application to which market participants, and whether it should include any minimum standards of service performance should be included in the review.

5. Urban and Rural planners need to consider Telecommunications as a basic infrastructure along with roads and water. We strongly suggest that it should be considered that the provision of these services be a mandatory planning requirement.

6. Fair and sustainable competition at the service level should be the focus to encourage continued investment in infrastructure. One of the key planks of any regulatory framework must be to balance the requirement to deliver fair competition for end users, but also to ensure the investment engine is sustained.

7. The continued convergence of service delivery over telecommunications infrastructure should lead to a review of the alignment of regulation and regulator of the sectors. The aim should be to ensure end-customers see increased choice and competition on how they receive content.

8. The question of de-commissioning the urban copper networks should be a discussion so that post 2020 we encourage continued uptake of the new connectivity options, but also to reduce the cost overhead on the network owners.

9. The Product disclosure regime needs to be tightened up.  Whilst the TCF has made valuable progress in this regard, we believe the continued development of a standardised disclosure regime would assist users to make informed choices.

10. Independent dispute resolution should be mandated or at least heavily encouraged. The current dispute resolution service is a voluntary process and works reasonably well within its remit but TUANZ is of the view that the possibility of making membership of some such scheme compulsory should be considered as part of gaining the right to operate as an RSP.

Two other issues are included in the paper but are subject already to proposals included around the extension of the Nation Environmental Standards and the Land Access for Telecommunications discussion paper released by MBIE.

Mr Young said “The issues raised are indicative of our early thoughts on the items that should be canvassed through the review process but are unlikely to be exhaustive. We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with the Government and the ICT industry on this and more generally on ensuring NZ businesses are able to make the most of the digitally connected economy.”

The full paper can be found here: http://tuanz.org.nz/representation/ 

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TUANZ MEDIA RELEASE – 2nd July 2015

The Commerce Commission latest draft decision on wholesale copper charges this morning has  provided a mixed bag of results for users today.  Users will see no benefit in their monthly bills from telecommunications service providers given that the price set for monthly access remains basically unchanged from the previous draft decision.  Users have already seen the effect of the increase of the latest decisions over the benchmarked initial price when it was released at the end of last year.  TUANZ had submitted with other interested parties that we believed the price should be lower than had been announced by the Commission last December and therefore lower than announced today.  

“For the significant number of people who will continue to receive their broadband over the copper network over the next 5 years, and especially those users in Rural New Zealand who will not have fibre access as part of UFB, this announcement disappointingly means no likelihood of reduction in monthly broadband charges” said Craig Young, TUANZ CEO.

TUANZ is pleased that the Commerce Commission has announced their preliminary decision not to backdate the changes to the copper access prices once finalised, which if implemented could have added more cost and uncertainty to users.

The Commission has released a raft of documents which provides complex detail around these numbers and TUANZ CEO Craig Young is concerned that the time for organisations such as TUANZ to submit on the decision is limited.  

“We will continue to participate fully in this process, always speaking for the end-users of these services.  Our concern has always been over ensuring a fair and competitive market which is sustainable and continues to provide world class services to New Zealanders at fair prices.”  

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Today’s release of a discussion document by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment on options for improving land access for telecommunications is a welcome step from the Government towards expediting complex fibre installs according to the CEO of the Telecommunications Users Association of NZ, Craig Young.

“We have for some time been pushing the message with the industry and the Government that the current access regime was hindering the uptake of fibre, particularly for small and medium businesses located in multi-unit complexes” said Mr Young.  “This paper outlines several positive options to enabling fibre companies to meet customer demand quicker and more efficiently.  We support the deemed consent approach outlined in the paper which means that fibre can be installed without having to wait inordinate amounts of time for all interested parties to respond to a request when they have no issues with the installation going ahead.”

TUANZ also strongly supports the proposal to investigate a new statutory right of access which would enable fibre companies to utilise existing assets, even when those existing assets traverse private land. “We see this as being key to extending fibre further especially into rural New Zealand as it significantly reduces the cost of build which is a key barrier in improving rural connectivity” said Mr Young.

TUANZ has identified as one of its overriding principles, working to help lift the digital competency of the New Zealand economy, and advocating the removal of barriers to uptake of new technology is a key element to this.  Feedback on the paper is due on the 24th July and TUANZ will be encouraging the Government to move quickly on the preferred solutions.

TUANZ and RHAANZ are pleased to formally announce that their jointly hosted Rural Connectivity Symposium will take place in Wellington at the James Cook Hotel on Thursday 28th May 2015. “The aim of the day is to gather representatives of rural users as well as service providers to learn and discuss possible priorities around the recently announced Rural Broadband Initiative #2 (RBI2) and Mobile Blackspots funding by the Government” said Craig Young, CEO of TUANZ. “We have in the past taken leadership in pushing for improved rural connectivity and this a continuation of that work.”

Rural satellite service provider, Wireless Nation will be the premier sponsor for the one-day event which will be a mixture of presentations and workshops. Other sponsors announced today include SPARK New Zealand, TRACTA and the Rural Contractors New Zealand. Speakers on the day will include ANZ Economist, Con Williams, Chair of the New Zealand Telehealth Forum, Dr John Garrett, as well a number of speakers from Government and the telecommunications and health industries.

The CE of RHAANZ Michelle Thompson, reiterated that “Bringing together a large number of stakeholders to discuss the options around improved connectivity is a great opportunity for us to provide a strong unified response which reflects the voices of rural users of telecommunications services”

Tickets are limited and registration details can be found on the websites of the two organisations as follows: www.tuanz.org.nz/rural-symposium www.rhaanz.org.nz

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