The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment recently conducted a review of the Telecommunications Act to establish a regulatory framework for fibre fixed line access services.
As part of the review, a number of new consumer provisions have been added to the Act to improve retail service quality (RSQ) through increased information and added consumer protections.
The new consumer provisions require the Commission to monitor aspects of retail service quality including performance, speed and availability, customer service, billing, and installation issues, and provide information for consumers to help them with their choices of technologies and providers. The new provisions also allow the Commission to create retail service quality codes if industry-led codes are inadequate, and requires the Commission to periodically review the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution scheme.
Our RSQ framework sets out the approach that we will take to implement the new consumer provisions. We hope to gain a better understanding of RSQ, prioritise what we will focus on, and determine the appropriate tools to use to improve RSQ, if required.
We are seeking feedback on retail service quality to help us identify what information we should collect and publish to help consumers compare the quality of services from different providers. Having received our initial consumer feedback, we will hold workshops with telcos, consumer advocacy groups, and interested consumers to decide what information we will collect and how we will collect it. More details on this will be provided shortly. We will then seek advice on the best ways to provide the information to consumers.
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Note: these dates are indicative only and are subject to change.