Liability allocation for telecommunications providers

Issued 22 October 2015

Commission releases draft decision on liability allocation for telecommunications providers

The Commerce Commission today released its draft decision about how much 18 telecommunications providers will pay towards the $50 million Telecommunications Development Levy (TDL) for 2014/15.

The government uses the annual levy to pay for telecommunications infrastructure including the relay service for the deaf and hearing-impaired, broadband for rural areas, and improvements to the 111 emergency service.

The levy — about 1% of telecommunications services revenue — is paid by companies, or groups of companies, earning more than $10 million per year from operating a component of a public telecommunications network (fixed or wireless).

The draft decision sets out how much of the $50 million levy each of these ‘qualifying liable persons’ should pay in proportion to their qualified revenue. Based on the draft decision, almost 90% of the contributions will be paid by Spark, Chorus and Vodafone.

The Commission has also released its 2014/15 draft determination on the cost of the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) operated by Sprint International New Zealand for the hearing and speech impaired. The Commission’s draft calculation has determined that the cost for that period is $2.6 million. This sum is payable by the Crown out of the $50 million levy.

The Commission invites submissions on both draft decisions. Submissions should be sent totelco@comcom.govt.nz by 5pm, 6 November for the TRS decision and by 5pm, 12 November 2015 for the TDL decision. The Commission anticipates releasing its final decisions in December.

The 2014/15 levy and draft decision can be found here.

The 2014/15 TRS draft cost decision can be found here.

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