New Zealand's telecommunications regulator said Tuesday it intends to invesigate whether regulation of national mobile phone roaming services should be extended to include price.
At the same time, the New Zealand Commerce Commission released a draft report on its investigation into mobile termination access services.
"In the past, the commission has used mobile termination rates as a proxy for mobile roaming rates. In light of the commission's benchmarking contained in its mobile termination report, the commission considers that the prices contained in current commercial roaming agreements may be significantly above cost," Commissioner Anita Mazzoleni said.
She said the watchdog also had a number of other concerns regarding national roaming and the mobile market in general, which suggest an investigation may be appropriate. These include the ability of future potential market entrants to negotiate competitive agreements in a timely manner.
The commission plans to begin its investigation into national roaming in August, with a view to releasing a draft report in mid October and completing the investigation by the end of February 2010. It added that involved parties still had an opportunity to reach acceptable commercial solutions at any time, including before the commission formally commences the investigation.
-By Simon Louisson, Dow Jones Newswires; 64-4-471-5990; simon.louisson@dowjones.com