Spark, Chorus and Vodafone to pay 90 percent of telco levy

The Commerce Commission has released its draft decision regarding the liability allocation for telecommunications providers.

The draft decision said how much 22 telecommunications providers will pay towards the $50 million Telecommunications Development Levy (TDL) for 2013/14.

Companies or groups of companies earning more than $10 million per year through operating a component of a public telecommunications network, whether fixed or wireless, will pay about 1 percent of their telecommunications services revenue toward the levy.

The Commission’s draft decision outlays ‘qualifying liable persons’ and sets out how much of the $50 million levy each will pay in proportion to their qualified revenue.

According to the draft decision, about 90 percent of the contributions will be paid by Spark, Chorus and Vodafone.

The telecommunications infrastructure is paid for by the government with this annual levy. It will go toward paying for the relay service for those who are deaf or hearing-impaired, broadband for rural areas, updates to the 111 emergency service as well as other government-led improvements to the telecommunications infrastructure in New Zealand.

Submissions are invited during the draft decision stage. In the year 2011/2012, Vodafone, Spark (then Telecom) and Chorus each submitted comments on the liability allocation determination. You can read them in the Commerce Commission archive. This year submissions can be sent to telco@comcom.govt.nz until 5pm, November 28, 2014.

It’s said the final decision will be made by late December 2014.