In August 2011, the Commerce Commission ("Commission") commenced a review (the UCLL Benchmarking review), under section 30R of the Telecommunications Act 2001 ("the Act"), for the purpose of:
- updating the benchmark data set used in the standard terms determination dated 7 November 2007 for the designated service Telecom’s unbundled copper local loop network; and
- updating prices under the Unbundled Bitstream Access and Sub-loop Services Standard Terms Determinations that are affected by the UCLL benchmark data update.
On 9 September 2011, the Commission released a combined draft decision covering the UCLL benchmarking review and a separate section 30R review for the purpose of implementing clause 4A of subpart 1 of Part 1 of the Act (the UCLL averaging requirement). Submissions were received on the draft decision by those participating in the review and a conference was held on 27 October 2011.
On 4 November 2011, the Commission released a revised draft decision for consultation proposing that the clause 4A and the UCLL Benchmarking review be separated. On
24 November, the Commission released its final UCLL averaging decision.
On 17 February 2012, the Commission released a discussion paper seeking views on a number of unresolved benchmarking issues. Submissions were received on the discussion paper by those participating in the review.
On 4 May 2012, the Commission released a revised draft decision on the UCLL Benchmarking review for consultation. Submissions were received on the draft decision by those participating in the review and a conference was held on 19 and 20 September 2012.
On 3 December 2012, the Commission released its final decision in relation to the UCLL Benchmarking review. The Commission decided to set a geographically averaged UCLL monthly rental price of $23.52 coming into effect on 1 December 2014. Updated urban and non-urban UCLL monthly rental prices, of $19.08 and $35.20 respectively, were also set coming into effect immediately. New UCLL connection charges were also determined along with relevant updated prices under Unbundled Bitsream Access and Sub-loop Services Standard Terms Determinations that were affected by the UCLL benchmark data update.
A copy of the decision can be found on the Commission’s website at
www.comcom.govt.nz/re-benchmarking-prices-for-chorus-s-unbundled-copper-local-loop-service/
Date of Decision: 3 December 2012.
COMMERCE COMMISSION.