About Information Reporting
Various national and international organisations routinely prepare telecommunications market or economy summaries and or benchmarking reports which require detailed information from carriers and service providers within New Zealand. Examples are the OECD and Statistics New Zealand. These bodies typically prepare a list of information requirements, and forward these either to the carriers directly, or to the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) who then pass them on to the carriers. There is however no mechanism in place for managing or co-ordinating this provision of information across the industry – ensuring firstly that these information requests get answered by all relevant parties, and secondly that they are answered in a consistent manner across all carriers.
The Information Reporting working party was established in July 2006 to investigate coordinating responses to multi-carrier information requests from organisations such as OECD and Statistics New Zealand.
A set of industry statistics in a consolidated questionnaire was developed and has been published, without compromising the commercial confidentiality of carriers, for organisations like the ITU and the OECD so they may access these statistics for their own international comparisons. Establishing processes for collating such information will also improve consistency of information and lower compliance costs across the industry.
The data from the consolidated questionnaire is now available in an aggregated form on the Commerce Commissions website and can be accessed through the following link:
http://www.comcom.govt.nz/IndustryRegulation/Telecommunications/MonitoringandReporting/DecisionsList.aspx.
Extension to Project Scope
Broadband Performance Monitoring
In November 2008 the TCF Board approved an extension to the scope of the Information Reporting working party. This extension was granted to cover the concerns TCF members had raised regarding the methodology being used for Broadband Performance Monitoring and the resulting robustness of the data being collected and reported. This extension to scope was seen as an avenue to enable the working group to engage with the Commerce Commission on how the Broadband Performance Monitoring could be improved and to enable further opportunities for Broadband Performance Monitoring to be identified.
It was agreed that the following activity be added to the scope of the working party:
- Identification of issues with the current Broadband Performance Monitoring.
- Development of a TCF report on Broadband Performance Monitoring which:
- Outlines the objectives the TCF would like to achieve.
- Outlines the suggested options to resolve the issues identified.
- Outlines suggestions in regards to data collection, processes for collecting the data, how the data is to be aggregated, the best way to present the data and development of an evaluation mechanism.
Presentation of the report to the Commerce Commission as a basis for providing assistance with the improvement of Broadband Performance Monitoring in New Zealand.
Benchmarking
In March 2010 the TCF Board approved a further extension to the scope of the Information Reporting working party. This extension was granted to incorporate the development of alternative benchmarking proposals that could be put to the Commission as suggested improvements.
One of the standing features of the Commission’s reports on the New Zealand Telecommunications market is the use of international pricing comparisons. These allow the Commission to benchmark the cost of New Zealand telecommunications services and comment upon the value for money that New Zealand users receive relative to the rest of the developed world. The Commerce Commission utilises the comparison tools produced by Teligen for these purposes, which are methods developed specifically for the purposes of pricing comparisons between OECD countries. The Teligen T-Basket methodology is used for comparing and analysing the relative price of New Zealand fixed line residential products and mobile phone products; whereas the Teligen T-Connect methodology is used for comparing broadband products.
While TCF members recognise the requirement that the Commission has to monitor the market in this regard, and the validity of such value comparisons, they TCF considers there are improvements which can be made to the basis upon which the benchmarking is conducted.
The working party's scope will be to complete a detailed analysis in relation to the Teligen T-Basket and T-Connect products, identify areas that can be improved to ensure the results obtained are more representative of New Zealand usage and engage with the Commission on any suggested improvements to the benchmarking.