In March this year we started our first copper withdrawal trial, and now have four trial batches inflight, making good progress so far.

Our trial plans remain the same, with four more batches to be released this calendar year, impacting ~4,500 consumers across approximately 400 cabinets in total. We continue targeting only locations with low copper connections and where fibre is available. This is not a mass withdrawal of copper services. 

With batch one approaching the end of its notice period (15 September 2021), we want to work with you to ensure a positive customer experience as we move any remaining customers off copper before the end of notice period and withdrawal date.

Trial progress

As of today, we have 177 cabinets and about 1700 addresses underway across the four trial batches. A few key callouts:

• For batch one, 60% of copper services have moved off so far, leaving 40% (about 90 individual services) still to be moved off before  the end of the notice period.  
• A value-add door knocking trial activity undertaken by our teams showed that most consumers acknowledged the need to move off copper, but a small percentage did not want to move or needed support.
• We have had very few escalations or complaints so far. The majority of queries received by our frontline teams are about PSTN withdrawal.    

The disconnection process

The disconnection process for the first trial is especially important. It was great to share and discuss our proposed disconnection process with you over the last month. Thank you to everyone who joined the sessions and provided feedback. The disconnection process is now confirmed and has been communicated to your operational teams. 

Chorus will follow through with withdrawal as communicated via the notices and in industry communications, provided our obligations in the Copper Withdrawal Code have been met.

Please note, this could mean disconnecting a number of customers who have not taken any action. We need to work closely with you in the lead up to the end of notice period, to ensure as many customers are moved off to a new service before the withdrawal date .   
   

At risk end users 

Chorus has included key information to help your at risk customers to make an informed decision – please see our notices and the Chorus website. If you need any further support for any at risk customers, either pre-order or inflight, please do not hesitate to contact the trial team. We reiterate that as we do not hold this information about your customers we are relying on you to inform us of any customers that require further support.

Service block for copper records

Currently our teams are issuing stop sell notices for addresses we intend to withdraw from, and then manually rejecting or blocking the ability for RSPs to place orders against those addresses. We know this isn’t the most ideal solution long term.  Our IT team is  building an automated solution that will remove the prequalification of any withdrawal address, removing the ability for you to place copper orders against those addresses and working seamlessly with your automated systems. Due to the complexity of this work, spanning across Wireline, ICMS and our internal systems, it is taking longer than expected. We’re working as fast as we can and will keep you updated as the work progresses. Thank you for your patience.

Feedback and learnings

Please continue providing the key information and insights that you’re capturing to our trial team. It is appreciated and allows us to continue optimising processes while making it simpler for you and your customers. 

Key upcoming dates

Contact 

Get in touch with your account team if you have any questions or email our copper withdrawal team at copperwithdrawal@chorus.co.nz . You can find more information on our dedicated copper withdrawal webpage.