The Commerce Commission has provided to the Minister of Communications its final report into regulation of mobile termination.

In June 2005, a previous report recommended that mobile termination should be regulated. In August 2005, the Minister asked the Commission to reconsider that recommendation in the light of offers he had received from Telecom and Vodafone to voluntarily reduce mobile termination rates. This final report completes the Commission's reconsideration of its prior recommendation.

Background

The Commission was asked by the Minister to reconsider its previous recommendation in order to consider:

  • definitional and implementation issues concerning 2G and 3G and implications for dynamic efficiency;
  • the commercial offers made by Telecom and Vodafone following the Commission's Final Report, in comparison to regulation; and,
  • how best to ensure that end-users benefit from reductions in wholesale mobile termination rates; and
  • new issues raised in submissions to MED on the Commission's previous report.

The Commission began its investigation into mobile termination in May 2004 after complaints that a potential lack of competition in the wholesale market for terminating mobile calls could be resulting in unreasonably high retail charges for fixed-to-mobile calls.