Final decision for telecommunications providers

Issued 19 December 2016
Release no. 69

Final decision on $50m liability allocation for telecommunications providers

The Commerce Commission today released its final decision about how much 15 telecommunications providers will pay towards the $50 million Telecommunications Development Levy (TDL) for 2015/16.

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).

There has been a minor adjustment to the Commission’s draft decision released in October, with Trustpower providing further information on its qualified revenue which has increased its contribution. The remaining 14 providers have seen their allocations marginally reduce as a result, though over 90% of the contributions will still be paid by Spark, Chorus, Vodafone and 2Degrees Mobile.

The Commission has also released its 2015/16 final determination on the cost of the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) operated by Sprint International New Zealand for the hearing and speech impaired. The Commission has determined that the cost for that period is $2.6 million – unchanged from the draft decision. This sum is payable by the Crown out of the $50 million TDL.

The 2015/16 TDL final decision can be found here.

ends

© Scoop Media