The New Zealand Commerce Commission Friday said it has decided not to commence an investigation in to whether regulation of the national mobile roaming service should be extended to include price controls.
"While there are still reasonable grounds to commence a roaming investigation, some new developments have been observed in the market since the Commission's original announcement," Telecommunications Commissioner Ross Patterson said in a statement.
These developments include Telecom Corp. Of New Zealand Ltd.'s (NZT) willingness to offer roaming on its new third generation XT mobile network to any future entrant.
He said there are now two parties, Vodafone Group Plc's (VOD) local unit and Telecom, that could offer commercial agreements for roaming.
"This goes some way to addressing the Commission's concerns in relation to a future entrant's ability to access commercial roaming agreements, although this development will not materially affect 2degrees."
2degrees commenced operating as the nation's third mobile entrant recently.
"The Commission will reconsider the matter after it has finalized its investigation into whether mobile termination access services should be subject to regulation," Patterson said.
-Shri Navaratnam, Dow Jones Newswires; 64-4-471-5990; shri.navaratnam@dowjones.com