For regulated copper services an annual CPI adjustment is required by the Telecommunications Act and has been approved by the Commerce Commission.

September’s annual consumer price index determines the price increase for copper services. This was 5.65% for the year to September 2023.

What’s happening?

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 32%, or 110,000 connections.

The Commerce Commission has approved an adjustment of 5.65% to core and ancillary charges for the following services, which will take effect from 16 December 2023:  

• Unbundled bitstream access (UBA/EUBA - ADSL/VDSL)
• Unbundled copper low frequency (UCLF)  
• UBA backhaul
• UCLF co-location
• UCLF backhaul

We will also apply a CPI increase to some copper services provided under our commercial agreements (the CSA and WCSA), as well as some co-location services.

Price changes for the following services will take effect 8 February 2024 (except for baseband, which flows through from UCLF and will take effect 16 December 2023, and HSNS Lite Copper, Commercial UBA and EUBA and VDSL TES which will take effect 8 January 2024):

• Baseband
• STM1 and STM4 handover connections
• Field services
• Enhanced services
• Pole sharing
• SLES
• PSTN Backhaul
• EDMR Backhaul
• Commercial UBA
• HSNS Lite Copper
• HSNS Lite Copper TES
• EUBA and VDSL TES
• Wireless Co-location
• Exchange Space Co-location
• Enhanced co-lo power

Our pricing rate cards, HSNS calculator and applicable price lists will be updated to reflect the new prices before the relevant effective date of each price change (16 December 2023, 8 January 2024 or 8 February 2024) and the price book will reflect the new prices in the month of the price change.

The Commission’s website sets out the relevant approval for the changes to charges for regulated services. The updated STD price lists will be published in mid-December.

Contact

For any queries, please contact your account team.