30R of the Telecommunications Act 2001 of Decision 626
On 27 June 2008, the Commerce Commission ("Commission") made a standard terms determination, under section 30M of the Telecommunications Act 2001 ("the Act"), in respect of the designated access services of Telecom’s Unbundled Copper Local Loop Network Backhaul ("Decision 626").
In Decision 626, the Commission indicated its intention to periodically review the Primary and Secondary Links, pursuant to section 30R of the Act, to determine which
links will be subject to the regulated UCLL Backhaul Service.
A UCLL Backhaul Service section 30R review was published by the Commission on 30 April 2009 ("Decision 667").
On 3 December 2009, the Commission published another section 30R review of the UCLL Backhaul Service ("Decision 686").
The review focused on reassessing the competitiveness of the 98 Primary and 37 Secondary links identified in Decision 626, and which were the subject of the previous review.
The Commission has concluded that:
- the competitive constraint posed by "near entrant" networks should be considered on a local exchange by local exchange basis based on information about
the proximity, the likely costs and the intentions of the smaller networks to connect to specific local exchanges;
- of the 98 Primary Links assessed, 52 of the links are now competitive and the remaining 46 links face limited competition;
- there are no changes needed to the competition status of secondary links;
- Appendix B in Schedule 5 "UCLL Backhaul POI Site Related Information" is replaced with a new Appendix B; and
- prior to the commencement of the next review, the Commission will reassess the competition assessment criteria used to determine if the threshold is appropriate in the current market.
Pursuant to section 30R(5) of the Act, the Commission is required to give public notice of the result of the review.
Decision 686 sets out the result of the review and is available on the Commission’s website at
http://www.comcom.govt.nz//IndustryRegulation/Telecommunications/StandardTermsDeterminations/UnbundledLocalLoopBackhaulService/ContentFiles/Documents/s30R%20Review%20of%20UCLL%20Backhaul%20links%2020091202.pdf
Date of Decision: 3 December 2009.
COMMERCE COMMISSION.