The Commerce Commission wants operators to be fairer and more transparent, as switching away from copper is posing a challenge for consumers
Copper retirement has made the problem of consumer information more pronounced: In retiring copper networks, communicating with consumers in a clear way is paramount. This week, the Commerce Commission of New Zealand intervened to address the way in which operators are marketing alternatives to legacy copper-based services – an issue that has become urgent as a result of Chorus withdrawing services on the copper network and Spark ending PSTN connections. The Commission notes that consumers find the information around these alternative services to be incomplete, confusing or misleading.
Both consumers and operators have raised concerns: In August, the Commission wrote an open letter to operators highlighting the problem, and sought views on new marketing principles to address it. It said consumers are often not aware of alternative services available to them when transitioning, or have often been pressured to switch immediately even in areas where copper is not yet scheduled to be withdrawn. They also find marketing materials to be unclear with regard to performance of alternative technologies such as fibre, HFC, wireless broadband, and mobile. Some providers also expressed their concerns about their competitors’ behaviour.
A binding industry code will be in place within two months: Feedback from industry on the Commission’s August open letter was that a self-regulatory code made by the industry body, the New Zealand Telecommunications Forum (TCF) would be preferable to a code from the Commission. In response, the Commission has now drafted marketing guidelines for the TCF, with three purposes in mind. Firstly, consumers should have sufficient notice of any change to their copper service so that they are not hurried into making a decision about a replacement. Secondly, that they should know about the full range of alternative services available to them, which is usually more than what a provider wants them to buy. Thirdly, consumers should know how alternative services are likely to perform – particularly in terms of speeds where providers are told to avoid ‘up to’ speeds and use likely actual peak time speeds. The TCF has 60 days to turn them into an industry retail service quality (RSQ) code. The Commission expects this code to be binding on TCF members, which include the major operators.
