NEW ZEALAND - RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR LICENSING

UNCLAS WELLINGTON 000491 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR EAP/ANP - TRAMSEY; EB/CIP - TFINTON; USTR - PNEUREITER E.O. 12985: N/A TAGS: ECPS ETRD EU NZ SUBJECT: NEW ZEALAND - RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR LICENSING CONDITIONS IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR Ref: State 114687 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. ¶1. (SBU) Wellington Charge spoke about reftel questions to Kester Gordon, Senior Advisor, Telecommunications and Postal Policy Group for the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development. We received the following responses on June 22, 2005: ¶2. (U) With regards to the first question on fee assessment in connection with licensing fixed line services, Mr. Gordon wrote: "A telecommunications service provider does not require a regulatory license to supply telecommunications services in New Zealand. Telecommunications levies are applied without regulatory licensing or registration. Telecommunications industry levies are applied on the basis of a liable service provider's revenue share in relation to the revenue of other telecommunications operators. An industry levy is applied to recover some of the regulatory authority's costs for telecommunications regulation. Industry levies are also applied to recover the net cost for community service obligations meeting government social telecommunications objectives." ¶3. (U) Regarding the second question on capitalization or bonding requirements, according to Mr. Gordon this is not required in New Zealand. ¶4. (U) Mr. Gordon also informed Charge, in reference to the last question on build-out investment requirements, that "there are no regulatory requirements for the build- out fixed line telecommunications networks in New Zealand. A network-build requirement is able to be imposed under the Telecommunications Act 2001 as an access condition determined for supply of the national roaming regulated service." HADDA