Commission recommends extension of regulated telecommunications services
Published29 Aug 2006
The Commission today released its final report on whether regulation of ten telecommunications services should be extended for two years.
The report recommends that regulation of all ten services under review be extended for two years from 19 December 2006. The services are the interconnection, retail resale, national roaming and number portability services, and co-location on cellular mobile transmission sites. It is the Commission's view that in the case of all ten services under investigation, an extension of the period of regulation will promote competition and lead to benefits for consumers.
The thirteen services originally regulated under the Telecommunications Act 2001 ('the Act') are due to expire on 19 December 2006. The Commission may make a recommendation to the Minister of Communications that any or all of these services should continue to be regulated under the Act for a further two year period.
The Commission decided that there were reasonable grounds to investigate whether to extend ten of the thirteen services, namely the four 'retail services', the two 'interconnection services', national roaming, co-location on cellular mobile transmission sites, and the local and cellular number portability services. This report considers only whether these services should be extended, and not whether any amendments should be made to these services. The Commission continues to evaluate whether changes to the existing regulated mobile services should be made. The Commission has commenced a review into entry issues in the mobile market and this is likely to address whether an investigation should be launched into amendments to existing regulated roaming and co-location services. The Commission has decided not to investigate amendments to any other regulated services at this time.
In deciding whether or not to recommend extension of a service, the Commission must satisfy itself that such a recommendation best gives, or would be likely to best give, effect to the purpose of the Act, which is the promotion of competition in telecommunications markets for the long-term benefit of end-users. The Commission has assessed whether competition issues which existed prior to and during the initial period of regulation of these services are likely to continue for the period of the extension.
The Commission considers that a finding of limited competition in key markets associated with the ten regulated services, and/or the presence of other factors suggestive of competition concerns in the industry, means that there would be ongoing benefit to the availability of the regulated services for a further two year period.
It is the Commission's view that in the case of all ten services under investigation, an extension of the period of regulation for a further two years will best promote competition in telecommunications markets for the benefit of end-users of telecommunications services. Accordingly, the Commission recommends that all ten services be extended for two years from 19 December 2006.
