Commerce Commission completes access reviews

The Commerce Commission has published its decisions on changes to the Standard Terms Determinations (STDs) which govern the terms under which a telco must provide access to its services.

The STD review was required due to amendments to the Telecommunications Act enacted ahead of the structural separation of Telecom from its network branch, Chorus.

The Commerce Commission’s first decision makes more than 400 amendments to six STDs, worked out in consultation with telco industry group, the Telecommunications Carriers’ Forum (TCF).

The second decision sets the price and non-price terms for a new service, the Unbundled Copper Low Frequency Service (UCLFS), which enables telcos to provide a voice service to customers using the low-frequency band in Telecom’s copper local loop network.

Thirdly, the Commission has reviewed the Unbundled Copper Local Loop (UCLL), Unbundled Bitstream Access (UBA) and Sub-Loop (SLU) services STDs to set geographically averaged prices for these services. These prices have been set by taking an average of the existing UCLL prices and flowing that average through the UBA and SLU services.

All changes are to apply from the day of Telecom’s structural separation, currently set for November 30.

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