New Zealand Legislation: Acts

16 Allocation of costs of interception capability on public switched telephone network or telecommunications service

• (1) The costs incurred, during the period referred to in section 15(1)(a), in ensuring that a public switched telephone network, or a telecommunications service, has an interception capability must be paid for,—

  • (a) in the case of a public switched telephone network or a telecommunications service that was operational on or before the specified date, by the Crown; or

  • (b) in the case of a public switched telephone network or a telecommunications service that became operational after the specified date, by the network operator that, as the case may be, owns, controls, or operates that network or provides that service.

  (2) On the expiry of the period referred to in section 15(1)(a), the costs of developing, installing, and maintaining an interception capability on a public switched telephone network or a telecommunications service must be paid for by the network operator concerned.

  (3) The obligation of the Crown to pay for the costs under subsection (1)(a)—

  • (a) relates only to the fair and reasonable costs associated with any modifications to a public switched telephone network or a telecommunications service that are necessary for that network or service to attain an interception capability; and

  • (b) does not apply to the costs of upgrading a public switched telephone network or a telecommunications service that was operational on or before the specified date unless the sole purpose of upgrading that network or service is to ensure that it has an interception capability (in which case the obligation of the Crown is limited to paying for the costs connected with attaining an interception capability on that network or service and does not extend to the other costs of the upgrade).

  (4) In this section, specified date means the date on which this Act was introduced as a Bill into the House of Representatives.