Copper Pricing: Should Commerce Commission think again?

“The only people happy with this outcome seem to be the Government and Chorus. That suggests the Commerce Commission should think again.”

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Consumers will bear the brunt of the Commerce Commission’s decision which looks set to hike up the monthly cost of broadband over the copper network.

That’s the damning view of Clare Curran, ICT spokesperson, Labour, following the release of its draft Final Pricing Principle (FPP) determinations, proposing an aggregate price of $38.39.

As reported by Computerworld New Zealand, this compares to the aggregate $34.44 price that was previously derived from the Commission’s Initial Pricing Principle (IPP) benchmarking review.

“While Labour supports the Commerce Commission’s role as the independent umpire,” Curran adds, “we note with concern that their decision to raise the wholesale copper price from their interim price creates ongoing uncertainty for telcos and looks set to make things harder for Kiwi consumers in the lead-up to Christmas.

“This is a draft final decision and submitters have just six weeks to respond to what has been described as a ‘monster set of documents’ over the summer period.”

According to Curran, the response time “seems a short amount of time over a holiday season.”

“The only people happy with this outcome seem to be the Government and Chorus,” Curran adds. “That suggests the Commerce Commission should think again.”