New Zealand regulator to look into resale of Telecom services

The New Zealand Commerce Commission announced that it will commence an investigation into whether the services Telecom Corporation of New Zealand provides to other telecommunications companies to be resold should be deregulated. Retail services such as Homeline are offered by Telecom to wholesale customers to resell at a discount to the retail price. "Regulatory intervention should be scaled back in areas where there is effective competition," said Telecommunications Commissioner Dr Ross Patterson. "Nor should regulation impose or maintain burdens which are unnecessary." "The Commission is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to commence an investigation," said Dr Patterson. "Telecom is providing these services on commercial terms without being obliged to do so by specific Commission decisions. There are also a significant number of Telecom's resale products that have had minimal or no uptake by other telecommunications companies." The investigation will examine whether regulation should be removed, or amended to streamline the number of services covered.