New Zealand - Regulatory Environment - Mobile, Wholesale and Number Portability

Synopsis

This report provides an overview of regulatory developments in New Zealand in the areas of mobile, wholesale access and number portability. Sweeping government reforms finally paved the way for an improvement in wholesale access for Telecom New Zealand’s competitors via local loop unbundling.

Number portability was officially launched in New Zealand for both mobile and fixed services in 2007. In October 2010 the monthly mobile numbers ported continued the trend that started in 2009 where the amount of ported numbers doubled from the historical levels of 2-3,000 numbers per month. The dramatic change was due to the launch of two new mobile networks – Telecom XT and 2degrees. The continuation of 10,000 or so numbers ported monthly will no doubt continue in the short term, fuelled by the launch of new smartphones, the iPhone4 and a mobile broadband network offering by 2degrees.

Other regulatory developments can be found in the two separate reports: New Zealand - Regulatory Environment - Local Loop Unbundling and TSO and New Zealand - Regulatory Environment - Telecommunications Act.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Mobile update – mid to late 2010
  • 2.1 Trans-Tasman mobile roaming services
  • 2.2 Termination regulation won’t solve competition problem in New Zealand
• 3. Mobile services reforms overview – 2009
  • 3.1 Mobile roaming
  • 3.2 Mobile termination access services investigation
• 4. Mobile services reforms – 2008
  • 4.1 Mobile colocation services
  • 4.2 Reversal of mobile roaming decision
• 5. Mobile services reforms – 2007
  • 5.1 Mobile duopoly under pressure
    • 5.1.1 New entrants required to provide 80% coverage
    • 5.1.2 Vodafone’s threat to scale back 3G rollout
    • 5.1.3 Question of access for new mobile entrants to new applications
  • 5.2 Draft mobile services recommendations
  • 5.3 Commission’s final recommendation on colocation
• 6. Wholesale access
  • 6.1 Operational separation
    • 6.1.1 Government formerly declares operational separation plan
    • 6.1.2 An overview of structural versus operational separation
  • 6.2 Telecom wholesale enters the market
  • 6.3 Telecom wholesale loyalty offers under investigation
  • 6.4 Reselling services under investigation
  • 6.5 Fair Trading Act prosecutions
• 7. Number Portability (NP)
  • 7.1 Overview
  • 7.2 Statistics
• 8. Related reports

• Chart 1 – Monthly porting of local and mobile numbers – 2008 - 2010