The Commission:
• Determines terms and conditions for access to regulated telecommunications services under Part 2 of the Act.
• Determines the cost of Telecommunications Service Obligations, and how these costs will be allocated among industry participants.
• Makes recommendations to the Minister of Communications as to the scope of regulation of telecommunications services.
• Makes recommendations to the Minister of Communications as whether to accept undertakings lodged by access providers in lieu of regulation.
• Conducts inquiries, reviews and studies relating to the telecommunications industry, and publishes reports, summaries and information about these activities.
• Monitors and enforces Telecom New Zealand Limited’s operational separation undertakings.
• Develops and administers accounting separation and information disclosure requirements.
• Considers telecommunications access codes which have been submitted to the Commission by the Telecommunications Carriers’ Forum (TCF) or developing telecommunications access codes itself.
• Enforces the provisions of the legislation using the new enforcement tools provided in the Telecommunications Amendment Act (No 2) 2006.

Overview 2007/08
The legislative regime regulating the telecommunications industry was extensively changed following passage of the Telecommunications Amendment Act (No 2), which took effect from 22 December 2006. Under the amended regulatory regime, the Commission has the scope to be significantly more proactive, and has a broader set of regulatory tools to achieve the statutory purposes of the Act.

The following broad areas of work are carried out by the Commission under the Telecommunications Act:

Standard Terms Determinations
Standard terms determinations for regulated services

Telecommunications Service Obligations Cost Allocation
Under the revised Telecommunications Act the Commission has separated the allocation of the TSO cost among industry participants from the determination of TSO cost into a separate processes.