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5. Capacity Requirements


This Document is Archived


Request for Proposal: Telecommunications Relay Service: Service Description

[ Last Updated 8 November 2005 ]


At present there is little reliable data as to the likely usage of the TRS.

The number of people who cannot use the standard telephone is difficult to assess. The Fitzgerald Report suggests the number may be anywhere from 14,000 to 70,000. However, Ministry of Health (MOH) officials estimate the number of people in the affected population who cannot use standard telephone services to be around 7,00017.

Figure 1 (see Section 9 Appendix- International usage of relay services) presents data comparing relay service usage in various countries. It is expected that usage of the TRS in New Zealand will fall within the bounds of international usage. Table 2 indicates the likely outer bounds of usage of the TRS based on the international data. Realistically, if the actual usage level were to approach the high usage level, it would take a number of years to do so.

The provider of the TRS will need to be able to scale the service to meet actual demand.

  Average monthly calls18Annual callsNotes
Projected high usage38,307459,684Based on US usage: 10.25 calls/1,000 inhabitants after 15 years
Projected medium usage10,165121,980Based on Australian usage: 2.72 calls/1,000 inhabitants after 7 years
Projected low usage1872,244Based on Czech Republic usage: 0.05 calls/1,000 inhabitants after 4 years

Table 2 Forecast range of possible usage level of TRS

Factors, which may influence usage in New Zealand, include:

  • No charge for residential local calling (as in the USA) resulting in higher adoption rates.
  • No charge for residential local calling resulting in longer call durations than in other countries.
  • Increasing usage of Short Message Service messaging via mobile phones, which based on experience from the Australian National Relay Service19, may reduce expected TRS usage.
  • Increasing use of email and instant messaging may have some impact on TRS uptake. Experience from the Australian National Relay Service20 suggests the impact may be less than that of Short Message Service use.

17This estimate is based on the number of Deaf and hearing impaired people with such a severe loss that they would qualify for access to the TRS, rather than the total population of Deaf and hearing impaired people. This estimate also includes an allowance based on international patterns of uptake by severely speech impaired people.

18Based on New Zealand 2001 census population of 3,737,280.

19Australian Communications Authority (2002, p.22)

20ibid.


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