Fixed voice rules head for deregulation
In this edition
ComCom investigates PSTN interconnection
The Commerce Commission has confirmed it will investigate deregulating PSTN interconnection. This is the service guaranteeing customers on one provider’s fixed phone service can call customers on another provider’s network.
In its final decision, the Commerce Commission ruled that it sees VoIP-based fixed voice services as part of PSTN Interconnection.
This means the PSTN interconnection is no longer merely a regulatory tidy-up of rules for an era that is about to end.
The final decision, released on May 6, clears the way for a formal investigation. The Commission now has to deliver a recommendation to the communications minister within 240 working days.
Fixed line connections declining at pace
It says there are reasonable grounds to question whether continued regulation remains necessary. It notes a sustained decline in fixed-line usage, widespread availability of mobile and cloud alternatives.
New Zealand’s legacy copper network continues to shrink at a fast pace. Earlier this year Chorus said copper connections fell from 63,000 to 53,000 in the latest quarter alone.
The Commission also found no evidence of anti-competitive conduct in the wholesale market.
Aussie Broadband makes the opposing case
In March, Aussie Broadband wrote a submission on behalf of its Symbio subsidiary opposing deregulation. It was the sole dissenting submission.
Symbio supplies voice interconnection and numbering services to many retail providers and has an interest in preserving regulated access arrangements.
The Commerce Commission dismissed Aussie Broadband’s arguments saying they are either unsupported by market evidence or outside the scope of the competition test.
Australia still regulates voice interconnection services, including both fixed and mobile termination.
VoIP interpretation
The final decision includes the interpretation that PSTN Interconnection includes VoIP-based fixed voice services. The VoIP question was left open earlier.
By ruling that VoIP falls within the regulated service, the Commission ensures the investigation covers fixed voice as it actually exists today, not just the legacy copper infrastructure that is visibly dying.
Deregulation would shift fixed voice interconnection from regulated terms to commercial negotiation.
No longer an alternative
This interpretation also means VoIP can no longer be considered as a competing alternative. PSTN’s remaining alternatives become mobile and over the top services.
Which leads to the question of whether these two technologies add up to enough competition to justify deregulation.
Spark spent years moving customers from legacy copper PSTN to VoIP. If VoIP interconnection is within scope and the investigation recommends deregulation, that removes the regulatory backstop from fixed voice interconnection across the board.
Deregulation, while not a given, looks probable. If that happens, fixed voice interconnection would move from sector-specific regulation to ordinary commercial arrangements for the first time in decades.
More on the PSTN shutdown and copper switch-off
Ventia resets strategy around digital infrastructure
Telecommunications is no longer the centre of Ventia’s growth strategy was the key message in an investor presentation the company gave earlier this week.
Instead Ventia plans to pivot towards a broader “digital infrastructure” market built around data centres, power and critical facilities.
While telecommunications remains “the foundation”, Ventia’s leadership sees digital infrastructure as its future “growth engine”.
Ventia has a deep and long-running relationship in New Zealand with Chorus. While the fibre company’s name may appear on vans, often the people inside are employed by Ventia. It played a major role in the UFB and subsequent network deployments.
Here the company works across fibre, wireless and network operations and maintenance services. It claims to be the largest telecommunications infrastructure services provider in Australia and New Zealand.
Bigger opportunity elsewhere
Despite this, the presentation makes clear the company sees the bigger opportunity elsewhere.
Ventia says the addressable market for datacentre services across Australia and New Zealand could grow from A$2.6 billion in 2025 to A$5.9 billion by 2030, driven by AI workloads, cloud expansion and demand for sovereign infrastructure.
The company is positioning itself as more than a network contractor. It highlights capabilities spanning fibre construction, high-voltage power systems, datacentre fit-outs and ongoing operations and maintenance services.
That matters for New Zealand because local datacentre projects increasingly face the same pressures seen in Australia: securing enough electricity supply, connecting to transmission networks and meeting government and enterprise requirements around data sovereignty.
Power demand rises with data
Ventia also links future growth to energy infrastructure, saying demand for high-voltage grid connections is rising alongside data centre development.
The presentation suggests infrastructure contractors increasingly see telecommunications as one layer in a wider digital economy build-out rather than a standalone industry.
One NZ builds 29 sites, lifts 5G coverage
One New Zealand says it built 29 new sites between January and March 2026. The company’s technology team upgraded a further 57 sites expanding its 5G network to an additional 50 locations.
In a parallel development, the carrier says visitors to the One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch downloaded 3.4 TB of data over three match days.
In other news...
- Amazon takes a $45m write down on its unbuilt Auckland datacentre — NZ Herald (paywall).
Revenues doubled during the year. - Humanoid robots expected on New Zealand farms in a decade — Farmers Weekly
Prediction includes robots in milking sheds. - Questioning New Zealand’s datacentre building boom — The Conversation
Can we count them as wins for our economy?
Satellite direct-to-device market up 25 percent
Ookla reports that the direct-to-device satellite market grew 25 percent between July 2025 and March 2026. It’s still a niche, in most countries less than one percent of people use the services.
The US accounts for almost half (46 percent) of activity as the technology allows standard phones to bypass traditional cell towers in remote regions. Current services are limited to text, but voice and broadband capabilities are expected as networks expand.
According to Ookla, Starlink dominates the sector but faces competition from AST SpaceMobile and Globalstar which was acquired last month by Amazon.
This time last year
Chorus and 2degrees laid out widely opposing views in their submissions for the Commerce Commission’s review of its Fibre Regulations Framework
Five years ago in Download Weekly
A report by UK-based Opensignal found a closing gap between rural and urban mobile experience. While there are still huge differences the amount of time rural mobile users spent on 4G networks increased faster than in urban areas.
Ten years ago
We reported on the work carried out by Spark and Huawei to upgrade a central Christchurch site to 4.5G which managed to deliver gigabit mobile speeds.
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