14 Apr 2016

Govt signals changes for telecoms industry

11:29 am on 14 April 2016

The Government is foreshadowing big changes for the telecommunications industry.

Communications Minister Amy Adams said the changes would improve regulations in the 2001 Telecommunications Act.

From 2020 the state would regulate copper and fibre services, in a similar way to current controls on utilities such as electricity lines.

The value of a company would be capped based on the cost of the components used to set it up, and that value would then be used as a basis for charging customers.

The Telecommunications Users Association said it was generally supportive of the move to utility-style regulations but until more detail was released, the impact could not be fully understood.