Farmers welcome MTAS recommendation

Federated Farmers welcomes the Commerce Commission’s recommendation to regulate mobile termination access services (MTAS) and urges the Minister of Communications, the Hon Steven Joyce, to accept its recommendation seriously.

“New Zealand has some of the highest MTAS in the OECD and Federated Farmers thinks this has to change. We want to ensure that telecommunications are supplied to rural consumers at a reasonable price and have been campaigning to get the MTAS dropped for some time,” says Donald Aubrey, Federated Farmers telecommunications spokesperson.

“Typically for each minute of a call to a competing network, 17 cents of each call goes to that network. The recommendation is for four cents.

“Federated Farmers has been a member of the ‘Drop the Rate, Mate!’ campaign since it formed in August 2009 and has actively supported the Commerce Commission investigating the MTAS.

“Rural telecommunication is extremely important to our members and it’s in the best interest of the rural community to ensure that cell-phone calling rates are kept to a minimum, especially for those members who rely on cell-phones to communicate with the outside world.

“Federated Farmers hopes that MTAS are regulated to ensure the telecommunications market remains competitive and our members receive the best deals possible,” Mr Aubrey concluded.