|
Tuesday 20th April 2010 |
Text too small? |
Communications Minister Steve Joyce will take Vodafone New Zealand’s new on-net pricing plan under consideration when he decides whether to regulate what phone companies charge rivals for ending calls on their networks.
Telecommunications Commission Ross Patterson yesterday told the minister that the Vodafone plan may be material and could “affect the basis for the commission’s recommendation” that the government accept Vodafone’s and Telecom’s undertakings to cut mobile termination rates (MTRs).
Joyce yesterday asked the regulator for guidance on whether Vodafone’s Talk-Add-on offer, which lets the mobile phone company’s prepay customers buy 200 minutes of voice calls to any other customer on the same network for $12 a month, would have a material impact on smaller competitors. Ministry of Economic Development officials advised Joyce that the “new on-net offer from Vodafone may be material to the determination” of MTRs and have an impact on rivals such as 2degrees.
“The commission has invited the minister to take account of the Talk Add-on product in his assessment of whether Telecom’s and Vodafone’s final undertakings should be accepted, or whether it is appropriate to request the commission to reconsider its recommendation in light of the potential impact of Vodafone’s new Talk Add-on product,” Patterson said in a statement.
In February, the regulator recommended Joyce accept the phone companies’ offer to slash the fee to 12 cents a minute from March, falling to 6 cents by 2014, though commissioner Anita Mazzoleni opposed the decision not to regulate.
Mazzoleni had taken the lead on telecommunications issues during Patterson’s 10-month leave of absence, and in June, she shot down Telecom’s and Vodafone’s submissions, saying the regulator’s recommended rates were significantly below those on offer.
Shares in Telecom rose 0.9% to $2.19 in trading today.
Businesswire.co.nz
No comments yet
Telecom Corporation of New Zealand (TEL)
Telecom in drive to latch on to growing data usage with 4G mobile launch next month
Telecom lines up to buy 700MHz spectrum to extend reach of 4G network
Telecom backs setting copper prices until 2020, warns against getting too far away from input cost
Telecom puts $60M price tag on new Auckland data centre, Hawkins, AECOM win build
Telecom ends jobs purge, looks for ‘more sophisticated’ ways to save money
Telecom FY earnings fall to bottom of guidance range, sees unchanged dividend in 2014
Telecom takes spat with Vodafone to regulator after dropping court action
Telecom unbundling key to regulator's copper conundrum
Telecom lures customers to faster services in EPL deal
