New Zealand to regulate mobile termination charges

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 04 August 2010 12:26

IT Policy - Regulation

The New Zealand Government has decided to regulate mobile termination access rates - the prices mobile operators charge other telcos to deliver calls made to mobile numbers on their networks.

Communications minister, Steven Joyce, said he had accepted a Commerce Commission recommendation to regulate the charges, and said the move would improve competition in the mobile market and result in lower prices for mobile phone users.

He added: "The next step is to add mobile termination access services to schedule 1 of the Telecommunications Act by regulation. The Commerce Commission will then go through a process to set prices and other terms which mobile carriers must offer. This process will likely take a few months."

The road to MTAS regulation in New Zealand has been long and tortuous. It has taken over seven years and appeared to come to an end in February this year with a recommendation by the Commerce Commission against regulation (albeit with one member dissenting).

However Vodafone NZ then introduced a new tariff that the Commission decided was anticompetitive and a result of Vodafone being able to set its own termination rates. The Commission sought permission from the minister to revisit its decision and has now recommended regulation.

Vodafone, however, is unrepentant. It has issued a statement saying it was "disappointed the minister has decided to regulate rather than to accept an industry solution that would have delivered lower mobile termination rates sooner."

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