Investigation into New Zealand's National Roaming Costs

New Zealand's Commerce Commission says that it is to start an investigation into whether regulation of the national mobile roaming service should be extended to include price. This announcement coincides with today's release of the Commission's draft report on its investigation into mobile termination access services.

In the past, the Commission has used mobile termination rates as a proxy for mobile roaming rates. In light of the Commission's benchmarking contained in its mobile termination report, the Commission considers that the prices contained in current commercial roaming agreements may be significantly above cost.

The Commission also says that it has a number of other concerns regarding national roaming, and the mobile market in general, which suggest that an investigation may be appropriate. These concerns include the ability of future potential market entrants to negotiate competitive agreements in a timely manner.

Accordingly, the Commission considers that there are reasonable grounds to commence a national roaming investigation.

"National roaming and mobile termination are distinct but related services in the sense that very similar network elements are used to provide these two services," said Commissioner Anita Mazzoleni. "Due to this relationship, the Commission's benchmarking for mobile termination is likely to inform its view on an appropriate price for national roaming in any Schedule 3 investigation."

Given the inter-relationship between the Commission's current mobile termination investigation and the national roaming service, the Commission intends to move quickly to align these two processes.

The Commission plans to commence an investigation into national roaming in August, with a view to releasing a draft report in mid October and completing the investigation by the end of February 2010. The Commission however notes that parties still have an opportunity to reach acceptable commercial solutions at any time, including before the Commission formally commences the investigation.

On the web: Commerce Commission

Posted to the site on 30th June 2009