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• Telecommunications

• Operational Separation

• Operational Separation process

• Side letter - info disclosure
• Telecom's side letter - rural
• Minister's letter to Telecom
• Telecom's Separation Plan
• Notice of Requirements
• Submissions on Telecom’s
• The Amending Determination
• The Amended Separation Plan
• Submissions on Undertakings
• T'com Draft Plan
• Determination
• Submissions Regarding Telecom
• Consultation on T'com Proposal
• Submissions
• Consultation Document
• Background Documents
• Media Statements

270. ANS shall control and operate the both current and future assets contained within the following parts of Telecom's fixed network, which together comprise the "Access Network":

1. The Local Access Network; and
2. The Regional Backhaul Network.

Local Access Network Assets

271. For the purposes of operational separation, the Local Access Network means all lines, including cables and aerial lines, between the network demarcation point at a residential or business telecommunications services premises (or where relevant, the building distribution frames) and the local telephone exchange distribution frame or optical fibre distribution frame or equivalent facility.

272. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes the following assets:

1. Cables and lines: Aerial and buried customer lead-ins from the network demarcation point, sub-loop, loop and feeder copper and optical fibre cables.
2. Civil infrastructure and buildings:
   • Poles, ducts and manholes.
   • Towers, roadside cabinets and buildings that are primarily used to support the Local Access and Regional Backhaul Networks.
   • Power and building services equipment in cabinets that are primarily used to house equipment and facilities primarily used to support the Local Access and Regional Backhaul Networks.
3. Transport electronics:
   • Fixed wireless access systems, such as multi-access radio, microwave systems, and wireless local loop systems.
   • All copper pair gain and loop conditioning systems.
   • All passive and active optical fibre equipment that is used in the Local Access and Regional Backhaul Networks up to and including the frame but not including the optical termination equipment or PSTN switch or edge router equipment when such equipment is not connected through a frame.
4. Connection points: Copper and optical distribution frames (i.e. Main Distribution Frames (MDFs), building distribution frames, cabinet based frames, Intermediate Distribution Frames, (IDFs) used predominantly for the Local Access and Regional Backhaul Networks).
5. Support facilities: IT systems to ensure efficient operation, maintenance, provisioning of the access services

273. For the avoidance of doubt, the ANS Unit shall not control:

1. Service nodes such as DSLAMs,²⁴ multi-service nodes, or PSTN switches or other such devices that are used to deliver value-added services to end-user customers and that are not required for the normal provision/operation of the Local Access and Regional Backhaul Networks.
2. Customer premises wiring.
3. Customised networks and associated equipment, excluding any underlying Local Access and Backhaul Networks, provided solely for specific individual business customers (e.g. wide area networks, campus networks, networks to offshore platforms, pipeline control networks).
4. Scott Base facilities.
5. Local access and backhaul network assets in the Pacific Islands and other countries.

274. ANS will not be required to have dedicated local test access systems, as currently these are inseparable parts of the PSTN and data service platforms. It is possible that ANS may need to develop this capability to ensure that it can continue to maintain the access network as NEAX exchanges are decommissioned and the penetration of LLU increases.

Regional Backhaul Assets

275. Telecom is required to provide a backhaul service from its:

1. Distribution cabinets to the telephone exchange, and from
2. Telephone exchanges to access seeker's nearest available point of interconnection.

276. Telecom has adopted a tiered Network Architecture. It proposes to have a limited number of sites that will house core network equipment, services platforms, service provider edge nodes and management systems. These sites are generally located in main centres and are known as Tier 1 and 2 sites. In addition Telecom proposes to establish a number of access network aggregation sites that will in future house only access and aggregation/distribution equipment. Most, but not all, of these sites currently house PSTN switches. These sites are known as Tier 3 sites and are generally within 60 km of the end customer with some consideration to the constraints of local geography.

277. ANS will control the following backhaul systems:

In geographic areas served by Tier 1 and 2 sites, ANS will control the following backhaul assets:

• All copper, wireless and optical fibre transmission systems that are used to provide connections from an access seeker's equipment that is located at cabinets to the nearest Tier 1 or 2 sites.

278. In cases where the access seeker requires backhaul to a location beyond the Tier 1 or 2 site then ANS will purchase, from Wholesale, transmission capacity from the site to the agreed delivery location as illustrated below.

Figure 1:

→ Full size version of Figure 1 [9 kB GIF]

All other Geographic areas, ANS will control the following backhaul assets:

• All copper, wireless and optical fibre transmission systems that are used to provide connections from an access seeker's equipment that is located at either a cabinet or MDF site to the nearest Tier 3 site.

279. In cases where the access seeker requires backhaul to a location beyond the Tier 3 site then ANS will purchase, from Wholesale, transmission capacity from the site to the agreed delivery location as illustrated in the following two diagrams.

Figure 2: Provision of back-haul asset in Tier 3 areas

→ Full size version of Figure 2 [8 kB GIF]

Figure 3: Provision of back-haul assets in remote areas

→ Full size version of Figure 3 [8 kB GIF]

280. In cases where ANS is required to purchase capacity from Wholesale, ANS shall have sufficient influence over transport assets controlled by Wholesale in order to discharge its responsibilities under these requirements in relation to delivery of backhaul services.

281. In cases where either feeder or backhaul services share core network infrastructure, we would expect that the asset would be split and that control of only those components (fibres and electronics) that are directly used for local loop and backhaul services would be transferred to Access Services.

282. For the avoidance of doubt Backhaul Assets exclude assets used exclusively for the following routes:

• Scott Base;
• Waitangi (Chatham Islands).

Transition Issues

283. There are five²⁵ Tier 3 sites where Telecom has replaced the PSTN switch with a pair gain system and the area is served from an MDF that is located at a Tier 2 location. The local loop asset definition captures this route but the backhaul definition does not capture this route. Given that these routes are located in rural areas backhaul systems on these routes will be controlled by ANS in the first instance.

Managing Change

284. It is likely that the final determination will include a defined list of sites within ANS. As the split (and related list) would be based on Telecom's current classification of sites a mechanism needs to be in place that allows the list to be updated to reflect revisions to Telecom's network architecture. It is intended that the Commerce Commission will oversee any changes to the list of sites within ANS that reflect changes in the status of sites.

285. ANS shall have sufficient influence over backhaul assets contained within Telecom's core network in order to discharge its responsibilities under these requirements in relation to delivery of backhaul services.