From 2022 the regulatory landscape for telecommunications in New Zealand will change. We are preparing two future-focussed engagement processes in coming months to gather your input. 

Context

From 2022, most of Chorus’ fibre products in most parts of the country will come under new arrangements that set a maximum allowable revenue (MAR) based on Commerce Commission assessment of our costs. The MAR will work alongside a regulated price cap which applies to three of our products (the ‘anchor products’).

This new regulatory arrangement involves the Commission evaluating expenditure proposals from Chorus every three to five years to determine appropriate levels of investment (capex) and operating costs (opex).  Over time, this process will have a significant impact on our investment direction (and hence the quality of the services we provide) and our revenues (and hence the prices we set for fibre products).

We will submit our first regulatory expenditure proposal to the Commerce Commission in October 2020 for regulated fibre fixed line access services (FFLAS) for the three years from 1 July 2022 (regulatory period one, RP1).  The proposal will include:

• forecast capex and opex levels; and
• information about our services, our business and our plans.

We see stakeholder engagement as an important part of developing our proposal and will continue to use the current product consultation process in parallel with an investment planning consultation.

What’s happening

• Product Roadmap Consultation – this is a continuation of the successful engagement we started in 2019 to discuss with you our specific product development priorities for the coming two years. We plan to announce further details on this in the coming weeks and hold workshops in late March and early April.
• Investment Planning Consultation – from 2022, our ongoing investment in fibre services will be governed by new regulatory arrangements. These require us to submit a business plan for those services to the Commerce Commission later this year. We want to engage with you and other relevant stakeholders on our plans before Easter.

These are both exciting opportunities for you to help shape the future of fibre, and we are keen gather your input.

What are the details

For the Investment Planning Consultation, we will:

• Publish an informative consultation paper that sets context and prompts input on consultation focus areas. We’ll be inviting written submissions from anyone with an interest in the future of fibre – including our customers, and others with an interest in economic or consumer issues
• Hold open-invite workshops to help build knowledge, provide clarification and support dialogue. 

We also welcome bi-lateral engagement and may consider targeted workshops if time and resources allow. The input and insights we gain through this process will help us finalise our business planning and proposal preparation.

We will provide more details on the Product Roadmap Consultation in the coming weeks.

The two processes are complementary but with a difference audience, focus and time horizon.

Next steps

We will publish our investment direction consultation paper in March, along with details on the workshops, how to engage with us directly, and how to make a submission. We will provide more information on the product roadmap dialogue at the same time.

Contact

If you have any queries, please get in touch with your Account Lead or Service Delivery Manager in the first instance.

For the investment direction consultation, anyone can contact us here. [RP1@chorus.co.nz].