A new industry code allows competitors to use mobile phone towers like this Telecom one. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times
It will be easier for potential competitors to Telecom and Vodafone to put their equipment in the two dominant mobile phone companies' cellular towers under a new draft code.
The Commerce Commission yesterday approved rules on how cellphone operators should put their transmission equipment into competitors' phone towers
- a process known as co-location.
This is intended to promote competition in the telecommunications market.
But the commission is yet to decide whether it will set prices for companies to use Vodafone and Telecom's towers.
Vodafone's general manager of commercial development, Tom Chignell, said the code would enable new entrants to get services out faster and more cheaply by using existing cell sites.
"There is going to be consistency in the industry on how the processes work for accessing other people's sites ... This leads to more competition, more efficient use of infrastructure and customers are better off."
The rules cover the identification of a good cellular tower for co-location and time-frames for getting a site ready for co-location.
Vodafone had been operating according to this code for some time and had supported the process through the Telecommunications Carriers Forum, said Chignell.
The forum drafted the code with companies including Vodafone, Telecom, TelstraClear and Woosh.
