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National environmental standards for telecommunications facilities

Cabinet decision

In February 2008, Cabinet decided the National Environmental Standards for Telecommunications Facilities should proceed and that regulations should be drafted to give effect to the standards. In essence, the standards will say:

An activity (such as a mobile phone transmitter) that emits radio-frequency fields would be a permitted activity provided it complies with the existing New Zealand Standard (NZS2772.1:1999 Radio-frequency Fields Part 1: Maximum Exposure Levels 3kHz-300GHz).
The installation of telecommunications equipment cabinets along roads or in the road reserve would be a permitted activity, subject to specified limitations on their size and location.
Noise emitting from telecommunications equipment cabinets located alongside roads or in the road reserve would be a permitted activity, subject to specified noise limits.
The installation of masts and antennas on existing structures alongside roads or in the road reserve would be a permitted activity, subject to specified limitations to height and size.

Cabinet paper

For detail on the policy background for the national environmental standard, refer to the Cabinet Paper: Proposed National Environmental Standard for Telecommunications Facilities, or download the PDF (259 KB)
The Cabinet paper was accompanied by a regulatory impact statement, which is a short document setting out the costs and benefits of the policy: Regulatory impact statement: National environmental standard for telecommunications facilities, or download the PDF (9 KB)

What happens next?

Regulations are now being drafted and will be gazetted later in 2008. The new standards will take effect 28 days after gazetting. The timeframe is subject to change however the present indicative timeline is for the regulations to be gazetted around the start of August 2008. A Section 32 report will be published when the regulations are gazetted. The Ministry for the Environment will produce an implementation package to assist district councils in applying the new standards.

Background to the standards

In July 2005 the Government approved national policy statements and national environmental standards for telecommunications infrastructure to be scoped using an industry-led approach.

An industry reference group was convened with representatives from Telecom, Vodafone and TelstraClear, Local Government New Zealand, the Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Economic Development.

After considering several options for national instruments under the Resource Management Act, the industry reference group proposed a package of national environmental standards for radiofrequency exposure and specific telecommunications facilities.

The industry reference group presented its report to the Ministry for the Environment (copies of the industry reference group’s report are available on request from: standards@mfe.govt.nz). The Ministry for the Environment then led the process for further developing the standards.

The discussion document, “Proposed National Environmental Standards for Telecommunications Facilities”, was released for public consultation 16 June 2007. Consultation ran for eight weeks until 10 August 2007.

A series of workshops were run in conjunction with the launch of the discussion document. These workshops provided the opportunity for proposals in the document to be discussed with Ministry staff.

In total, 82 submissions were received from local and central government, industry, community groups and individuals.

A report on submissions is available. The report provides a summary of the responses received during the consultation and outlines the main issues raised by respondents.

Several key changes to the standard were made based on consideration of submissions. These included:

Strengthen links to district plan provisions where specific values such as amenity have been identified as a local issue.
Reducing the potential for street clutter through increased minimum separation distances between cabinets
Aligning the noise standards with the new Standards New Zealand standard.
Future proofing the standards by not specifying specific types of panel antennas and including allowances for dish antennas.
Limiting extensions to roadside structures to one extension only - to prevent incremental height creep.

See Questions and answers –national environmental standards for telecommunications facilities for more information.

If you would like more information about standards for telecommunications please contact standards@mfe.govt.nz.