This notice is issued under sections 156AI(5) and 156AM(5) of the Telecommunications Act 2001 and approves Chorus’s Variation to the Open Access Undertakings for Copper Services.

Notice

1. Title

This notice is the Telecommunications (Approval of Variation to Undertakings) Notice 2023.

2. Commencement

This notice comes into force on the date on which this notice is published.

3. Application

This notice applies to Chorus.

4. Interpretation

In this notice, unless the context requires otherwise:

Act means the Telecommunications Act 2001;

Chorus means Chorus Limited; and

Undertakings means the Chorus Limited Deed of Open Access Undertakings for Copper Services.

5. Variation

Section 17.2 of the Undertakings now reads:

“The Sharing Arrangements Transition Plan will identify key Sharing Arrangements and will set out:

1. key changes to Sharing Arrangements during the previous 12 months;
2. the current state of Sharing Arrangements; and
3. a forecast of future changes anticipated to move to ending the Sharing Arrangements without significant and unreasonable costs to Chorus.

Nothing in this clause 17.2 as amended affects any other Undertaking or any undertaking under any other deed, or any other of Chorus’s legal obligations”.

6. Approval of Variation to Undertakings by Minister

The variation to the Undertakings is approved.

Dated at Wellington this 14th day of July 2023.

Hon GINNY ANDERSEN, Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications.

Explanatory Note

This note is not part of the notice, but is intended to indicate its general effect.

On 21 November 2022, the Commerce Commission (“Commission”) recommended to the Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications (“Minister”) that the Minister approve a variation to clause 17.2 of Chorus’s Open Access Undertakings for Copper Services that was requested by Chorus from the Commission on 29 April 2022.

The Commission’s recommendation to the Minister was made under section 156AL of the Telecommunications Act 2001. The effect of Chorus’s requested variation is to reduce the level of detail it must provide annually on the Sharing Arrangements Transition Plan. Chorus requested the changes to its reporting requirements through the requested variation as it considers the current requirements are resource intensive and require considerable effort to prepare.

Section 156AL(2) of the Act sets out the requirements that must be fulfilled for the Commission to make a recommendation to the Minister on a proposed variation. The Commission is required to have:

1. received a request for the variation from the Local Fibre Company (in this case Chorus);
2. consulted with interested parties; and
3. is satisfied that the variation would best give effect to the purposes of the subpart of the Act governing the Undertakings.