Kiwi Govt Accused Of Dodgy Termination Deal

Written by Adam Gosling

Thursday, 03 May 2007

A deal that lets New Zealand's mobile phone operators avoid the inconvenience and potential margin reducing impact of mobile phone call termination, has been slammed by most industry watchers. According to a report in this local newspaper, Ernie Newman chief executive of the country's Telecommunications Users Association has accused the decision by Economic Development Minister, Trevor Mallard. Newman says he is dismayed over the sweetheart deal not to regulate mobile termination charges, but the Minister has defended his decision saying it the legally enorceable commitments made by Telcom and Vodafone will reduce fixed-to-mobile fees more than regulation wuold have. Newman says the deal is bad news for consumers who will be locked into exorbitant prices for even longer thanks to the five year deal. In contrast to the staunch stand against regulation that it takes in Australia, the New Zealand subsidiary of the Australian incumbent telco, TelstraClear, expressed disappointment there will be no regulation of the mobile termination rates in New Zealand according to the report. The background to the decision is one of conflict and heated opinions with members of New Zealand's opposition party accusing Communications Minister David Cunliffe of a conflict of interest in the decision which forced him to pass the final decision across to the Economic Development Minister Mr. Mallard. Mallard, in defending his decision not to regulate the industry said he had met with Vodafone, Telecom and TelstraClear and made the decision after studying submissions from interested parties and briefings from officials. However, despite the NZ Commerce Commission estimating regulation could save NZ consumers up to NZ$63 million over five years, Mallard said he was rejecting the commission's recommendation in favour of legally enforceable offers from Vodafone and Telecom. Under the agreed deal savings would be passed on to customers, something that could not be guaranteed if the commission's regulatory route had been taken, said the story. Telecom New Zealand promised to reduce its mobile termination rate from 20 cents to 12 cents per minutes, while Vodafone said it would reduce its rate from 20c to 14c, both over the next five years. Related news items Tiny Rugged UMPC WIth Vista -10/10/2007 Consumers Want FMC: Companies Don't See The Benefit -02/10/2007 Nokia Buys Map Company For US$8 Billion -02/10/2007 Seven In Unwired Takeover Bid -26/09/2007 Ultra-Mobile Sales Ready To Rocket -16/09/2007 Newer news items ACMA Issues Biggest Ever Fine To Phone Spammer -23/07/2007 Feuding Mobile Email Players Settle Their Differences -10/07/2007 LG Goes After Quanta Again -05/07/2007 Judge Judges Optus Better Value Than Telstra -17/05/2007 More Work For Nokia Lawyers -04/05/2007 Older news items Do Not Call Register Swamped -03/05/2007 Kiwi Risks Huge Legal Bill To Recover Laptop -19/04/2007 Voda NZ In Trouble Over Number Portability -16/04/2007 Qualcomm Scoffs At Nokia's Millions -13/04/2007 Nokia Payment An Admission: Qualcomm -09/04/2007 Tag This Now: