Does ComCom know what it's doing? But ComCom foreshadows a changes in the Telecommunications Act - which I think will be ComCom's turn to get a nasty surprise as the Government uses it to sort ComCom and enforce its plans for UFB vs copper.
GENERAL: CNU: Draft Decision on UCLL Pricing Release by Commission 08:43a.m.
CNU
04/05/2012 08:43
GENERAL
REL: 0843 HRS Chorus Limited (NS)
GENERAL: CNU: Draft Decision on UCLL Pricing Release by Commission
STOCK EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT
4 May 2012
Draft decision on UCLL pricing released by Commerce Commission
The Commerce Commission has issued a draft decision on UCLL re-benchmarking.
The Commission's draft decision proposes a new price for UCLL services. This
would impact around 6% of Chorus' copper-based access services on today's
volumes.
The draft UCLL price is no longer an exact average of the existing urban and
non-urban UCLL prices.
The draft decision foreshadows that there will be further Commission
processes. This includes an investigation into a potential change to the
Telecommunications Act for how the price of UCLFS services will be
calculated. The implications for the pricing of the other Chorus services
referred to the Commission's draft decision (SLU, UCLFS) is unclear. Chorus
is disappointed that this creates uncertainty for investors and industry.
At a time when New Zealand is making a very significant investment in
building a fibre world, Chorus is concerned that the Commission's draft
decision creates a potential disincentive for retail service providers and
end customers to transition to fibre services.
This is a complex draft decision and we are continuing to analyse it. Chorus
will engage with the Commission on this issue through the submission,
cross-submission and conference processes before the Commission issues a
final decision in mid-August.
A copy of the Commission's media release is attached.
Investor teleconference
An investor teleconference to discuss today's announcement will be held today
at 12:30pm NZ time (10:30am Australian EST). Please dial into the
teleconference 5 minutes before the scheduled start.
Please have the Conference ID ready to quote to the operator when dialling
in: Conference ID: 77975707
To join the teleconference, please use the following dial in numbers:
Country Date Time Dial in
New Zealand 4/05/2012 12:30pm 083035
Australia 4/05/2012 10:30am AEST 1800 007 094
USA 3/05/2012 8:30pm EDT 1800 651 8618
Hong Kong 4/05/2012 8:30am HKT 800 966 885
Singapore 4/05/2012 8:30am SGT 800 641 1152
Japan 4/05/2012 9:30am JST 00531 64 0081
UK 4/05/2012 1:30am GMT 0800 032 3241
*To join the teleconference via International Direct Dial from other
countries, please dial your country's international access code followed by
+64 83 08 30 35
An audio recording of that briefing will also be made available on the
investor centre section of Chorus' website afterwards.
ENDS
For further information:
Melanie Marshall
Head of Communications & Brand
Mobile: +64 (27) 452 6231
Email: melanie.marshall@chorus.co.nz
Brett Jackson
© Direct Broking Limited 2005.