Critical Response

Critical Response allows you to offer enhanced levels of service to the normal restoration process for your larger customers. It enables service restoration faster than our BAU processes. We will respond within two hours, 24/7.

Our network access services help deliver a range of home and business applications from simple phone and internet services, to more complex or integrated services like EFTPOS, Voice over IP, alarm systems, entertainment and other data applications. With more competition in the industry than ever before, you need the flexibility and range of service options that will enable you to make your offering stand out from the rest. Our enhanced services help you deliver a better service to your customers and maintain continuity of services, particularly for critical applications.

What we do

Our Critical Response service aims to have a technician on site within two hours of your fault being logged and received by our service company. This could be at your customer premises, the exchange or cabinet, depending on the nature of the fault. This commitment covers all Chorus and Agency products.

Benefits

Critical Response lets you bring extra focus to high value or business customers, and escalations where time and technology are crucial to their operation. Specifically, you can offer them an enhanced service level through quicker response times and reduced downtime of essential services.

Availability

This service is available throughout New Zealand, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on the terms and conditions specified in our commercial services agreement. If a technician is not available, we will then advise on the next suitable time. During emergencies, we prioritise installation and restoration services in accordance with our crisis management plan.

What does the service cost?

Charges for this service include:

• A $861.55 charge (excl GST) will apply for all confirmed Critical Response orders.
• If the technician does not arrive to site within the Critical Response timeframe (2 hours), we will advise you of the earliest possible time we can have a technician at your customer premises – this will not incur a charge.
• Charges are GST exclusive. Additional charges may apply for repairing faults. For example the no fault found fee, or customer premises restoration fee. Service levels The UCLL Standard Terms Determination (STD) and the sub-loop UCLL STD, including the deliverables and service levels that apply, are unaffected by this response service. The service level is met if a technician is onsite (at either an exchange, cabinet or customer site) within 2 hours of a fault being logged and received by our service company.

12 month trial for Critical Response free on Small Business Hyperfibre or Business Hyperfibre connections.

One year trial offer (for the 12 months starting from 5 May 2025) 

• We are offering a 12-month trial on any Small Business Hyperfibre or Business Hyperfibre connection for Critical Response. If there is a network issue, and the customer has real urgency to get the fastest response possible, then they can request our Critical Response service. The offer provides one free Critical Response per 12-month period on these plans, per customer connection.
• There will be a fair use clause in this trial offer, as the intention is that customers only invoke the one free Critical Response per annum in urgent cases. After one successful application of Critical Response, any subsequent Critical Response on that connection will pay the normal fee (as will other business plans not included in this trial).
• Our Chorus Billing Team will receive a weekly Critical Response report and apply a rebate to any lines that show as being eligible. The rebate can only be applied once per connection.

More information

This information is an overview of Critical Response. For more detail please refer to our enhanced services commercial agreement, or get in touch with your Account Manager.