New Zealand Watchdog To Effect Phone Number Portability By Apr '07
WELLINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The New Zealand Commerce Commission issued a final ruling Wednesday that requires fixed-line and mobile phone companies to provide number portability by April 2007.
The commission, the country's competition and regulatory watchdog, set out the costs that will apply across the industry in enforcing number portability.
Number portability allows customers to keep the same telephone number for as long as they want, regardless of whether they switch telephone carriers.
"While local number portability is currently available to some customers, the determination sets a path for an efficient industrywide solution that will provide number portability for all local and cellular users," said Douglas Webb, the telecommunications commissioner.
The commission identified four specific areas of costs, and how they should be allocated across the telco industry. The four are industry common costs, per-operator set up costs, per-line set up costs and call conveyance costs.
The commission said that the Telecommunications Industry Forum had agreed to these cost parameters. Telecom Corp. of New Zealand Ltd. (NZT) is the country's biggest fixed-line phone provider, and Telstra Corp. (TLS.AU) operates the second biggest fixed-line phone company, TelstraClear Ltd.
The mobile phone market is dominated by Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN) and Telecom.
Industrywide common system costs should be divided among all providers of fixed-line phone and cellular services in line with market share, measured by subscriber numbers, the commission said.
Common costs cover areas such as setting up a database and maintenance operations. Operator specific setup costs - such as a company configuring its network to interface with the system - should be borne by each operator.
The commission also said that the cost of a customer switching from one operator to another, known as per-line set up costs, should be borne by the subscriber's new carrier.
Call conveyance costs are borne by a subscriber's new carrier when routing a call through different ports after a customer has switched carriers. This cost will have to be borne by the subscriber's new operator and any other operator involved in routing the call.
Webb said he has asked operators to implement number portability before April 2007 where possible. "Universal number portability will improve competition in both the local and cellular markets," Webb said.
The commission also ruled on some areas that had failed to produce agreement among operators, including a framework for resolving disputes.
Web Site: www.comcom.govt.nz
-By Shri Navaratnam, Dow Jones Newswires; 64-4-471-5990; shri.navaratnam@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 31st August 2005
