2023 Review of National Roaming
Mobile roaming allows customers of one mobile network to use another network when they are outside their own provider’s coverage area.
Schedule 1 of the Telecommunications Act 2001 contains the wholesale services we have the power to regulate.
The Commission currently has the power to require the country’s three mobile network operators - Spark, Vodafone, and 2degrees - to provide wholesale access to their networks for a period of time to any new network operator. This regulation would enable a new operator to quickly expand its coverage beyond its own initial physical network.
Under the Act, we are required once every 5 years to consider whether there are reasonable grounds to commence an investigation into the deregulation of certain services, including national roaming. The Commission provided it’s final views on 30 August 2023.