Annual adjustment for copper services and a price increase for some charges
Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment
We are required to adjust charges annually in line with CPI for services subject to Standard Terms Determinations (STDs). As the number of customers using copper services on Chorus’ network decreases each year it is getting increasingly more costly to maintain and operate the network. The fixed costs for operating and maintaining the copper network do not change with decreasing customer numbers. In the last financial year copper broadband and voice services declined by 35%, or 83,000 connections.
The Commerce Commission has been asked to approve an adjustment of 2.15% to core and ancillary charges for the following services, which will take effect from 16 December 2024:
- Unbundled Bitstream Access (UBA/EUBA - ADSL/VDSL)
- Unbundled Bitstream Access Backhaul
- Unbundled copper low frequency (UCLF)
- Baseband
- UCLF co-location
- UCLF backhaul
We will also apply a CPI increase to some copper access services provided under our commercial agreements (the CSA and WCSA).
Price changes for the following services will take effect from 8 February 2025:
- Field services
- Enhanced services
- Pole sharing
- SLES
- PSTN Backhaul
- EDMR Backhaul
- Commercial UBA
- STM1 and STM4 handover connections
Our pricing rate cards, and applicable price lists will be updated to reflect the new prices before the relevant effective date of each price change (16 December 2024, or 8 February 2025) and the price book will reflect the new prices in the month of the price change.
Additional copper price increases
We have identified three commercial copper products where pricing could be adjusted to better reflect the increased costs of operating and maintaining the products.
We are increasing prices by 20% on two of the products.
- Copper TES (Baseband IP and EUBA & VDSL TES) and
- Access, Service bandwidth and Tail Extension for HSNS lite copper.
The price book will reflect the new prices and the HSNS calculator will be updated in the month of the price change.
These price increases will be effective 1 March 2025.
We will also consult on a proposal to increase the BBIP-Extended additional charge by 20%. Consultation will be sent this month and take place for three months closing in February 2025.
Formal notice of TES and HSNS increases will be provided along with the BBIP-Extended consultation.
In making / proposing these price increases we have considered the reduction in the number of connections, rising maintenance, challenges to retain specialist workforce, and ensuring continuity of service until these products are retired.
EdgeCentre power price increases
Although our EdgeCentre contract allowed us to increase the price by the Producers Price Index (PPI) Electricity and Gas index each year, we refrained from doing this during the growth phase and to provide certainty and remove barriers to customers purchasing the product.
With significant increases in power costs to Chorus over the last 12 months the PPI for Electricity and Gas supply (SQUDD1100) showed a June 24 annual increase of 31.9%, which closely aligns with Chorus’ actual cost increases resulting in an increase from 43 cents per kWh to 57 cents per kWh.
This increase will take effect on 8 February 2025 following a 3-month notification period.
The affected services are:
- EdgeCentre power charges
- Premium Colocation (a legacy EdgeCentre service) power charges
Premium Colocation (a legacy EdgeCentre service) power charges will be aligned with the updated EdgeCentre power charges, reflecting the similarities between these products.
Contact
If you have any questions, please get in contact with your Customer Engagement team.