MTAS announcement welcomed by farmers

Federated Farmers welcomes the Communications and Information Technology Minister, the Hon Steven Joyce’s decision to regulate mobile termination access services (MTAS).

"New Zealand has some of the highest MTAS in the OECD and it is very encouraging to see the Minister accepting the Commerce Commissions’ recommendation that this has to change. I’m glad to see the Minister and Federated Farmers are on the same page,” says Donald Aubrey, Federated Farmers telecommunications spokesperson.

“New Zealand was one of the only countries in the OECD that had not regulated this service, in fact, now only Mexico has an unregulated MTAS market.

“It is especially important for farmers because they often rely on cell phones for contact to the outside world, so obviously we want to ensure that telecommunications are supplied to rural customers at a reasonable price.

“Federated Farmers has been campaigning to get the MTAS dropped for some time. We’ve been a member of the ‘Drop the Rate, Mate!' campaign since it formed in August 2009 and we’ve actively supported the Commerce Commission when investigating the MTAS.

"As it stands at the moment, on average 17 cents for every minute of the call to a competing network goes to that network.

“The recommendation from the Commerce Commission is that this charge should be four cents. Now the Minister has announced his support for regulation, we want to see this target achieved as quickly as possible for our members.

"It's in the best interest of the rural community to ensure that cell phone calling rates are kept to a minimum, especially because it is such an invaluable service on-farm, where it is available.

"Federated Farmers believes that regulated MTAS will ensure the telecommunications market remains competitive and we welcome the fact that our members will benefit from reduced mobile charges," Mr Aubrey concluded.