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11.1 Telecom New Zealand’s Residential Telephone Service Quality

There was a concern prior to Telecom's privatisation that telecommunications service quality standards for residential telephone service might not be maintained. To address this concern Telecom agreed in May 1990 to a request from the Minister of Consumer Affairs, to voluntarily publish indicators of the quality of the residential telephone service, on a half yearly basis, via media releases and in company reports.

Ten telephone service indicators were initially agreed upon which included service connection times, fault incidence, operator response times, SPC exchange availability, payphone availability and billing disputes. The objective was to provide residential customers with a clear understanding of Telecom's telephone service performance, and provide a safeguard against declining service standards.

These initial indicators showed improved performance from 1990 up to about 1993. There was then a small decline in fault clearance times. Telecom attributed the decline to one-off factors, including unusually high rainfall and associated flooding, along with severe electrical storms in some areas and problems arising with the centralisation of all New Zealand fault reporting in the Auckland area.

In 1995 the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, in conjunction with Telecom, reviewed the adequacy of the quality of service indicators and a set of new indicators was agreed. The new set of indicators and recent performance follow:

(note: * indicators directly comparable to old indicator)

• The percentage of residential telephone service requests that meet the customer’s requested installation time;

• The percentage of ‘intact’ residential telephone service requests completed within 24 hours of customer’s request;

• The percentage of ‘intact’ residential telephone service requests not completed within 48 hours where the customer completed within 24 hours of customer’s request;

• The percentage of residential telephone service requests outstanding 96 hours after the installation date requested by the customer;

• Call minutes lost in electronic exchange outages;

• Number of party-lines;

• * Average time taken to answer directory assistance calls (seconds);

• * Average time taken to handle directory assistance calls (seconds);

• The percentage of correct residential telephone white page listings (as a percentage of total residential listings);

• The number of written residential escalated complaints regarding any aspect of service or obtaining service;

• * Faults per 100 residential circuits;

• Percentage of repair commitments that meet the customers request;

• Percentage of faults cleared within 24 hours;

• Percentage of faults outstanding after 96 hours;

• * Availability of electronic payphones (%)

The residential telephone service quality of service indicators generally indicate that service quality has improved, other than for faults. It should be noted that this conclusion is partly based on earlier (discontinued) service quality indicators which have not been reproduced above, but are available on request.

Recently, directory assistance answering times have increased considerably. Telecom says this problem is due to a large increase in directory assistance calls. Telecom has made a proposal to Government to introduce a charge for directory assistance calls which includes an offsetting reduction in telephone line rental. The Government has yet to consider the issue.

11.2 Comparison of Service Quality Statistics with International Results

This section compares New Zealand residential telephone service quality statistics with other countries results, where available.

In general, few of the New Zealand quality of service indicators are comparable. The ones which are reasonably similar and allow a reasonable comparison to be made, are outlined below.

The following table compares data representative of the average percentage of residential telephone service faults cleared within about one working day of notification. However, it should be noted that the definition of each statistic are not quite the same. For BT it is "in 9 working hours or successful appointment". For Telecom NZ it is within 24 hours. The Telstra data is within one working day and has been derived from combining "metropolitan and country" residential telephone service faults clearance results.

Note na = not available or applicable

The data suggests that New Zealand’s residential telephone service fault clearance performance could probably be improved further.

The following table details residential telephone service reported faults, per 100 customer lines, per annum.

Telecom NZ says that its reported faults includes customer apparatus faults and multiple reporting of the same fault. The data suggests that New Zealand’s residential telephone service fault incidence could improve further.

The following table outlines percentage of service orders completed by date committed to customer.

The data suggests that New Zealand’s performance is satisfactory.

The following table outlines residential telephone service directory assistance service call answering time statistics. It is important to note the basis of each statistic.

Manipulation of the Telstra data suggests that its typical directory assistance average service call answering time may be about 20 seconds.

Limited data from other countries is available to compare with New Zealand’s residential telephone service quality of service indicators. However, the data available suggests that New Zealand’s residential telephone service fault rates and fault clearance service performance could improve further. Telecom is aware of Government concern on this issue and has put in place initiatives to address it.