New Zealand's competition regulator today said that Telecom New Zealand had remedied a breach of its separation undertakings linked to the spread of higher broadband speeds.

The breach, which the Commerce Commission had previously said was unintentional, related to Telecom's failure to consult and provide information before June 30 this year about the method by which Telecom classified customer service addresses.

The information would enable the commission to monitor Telecom's commitment to ensure that 80 per cent of the country's traditional telephone lines were capable of higher broadband speeds by 2012.

Telecommunications commissioner Ross Patterson said that since notification of the breach, Telecom had been in active consultation with the commission to work through a robust process to classify the customer addresses and establish a definitive count of public switched telephone network lines.

The undertakings are obligations Telecom must meet under the split into three operational units forced on it by the government. They include migrating over four years the company's existing voice and data products in zones that cover more than 80 percent of existing PSTN lines to products based on inputs from its new advanced broadband network.

The commission today also released its final telecommunications services obligations (TSO) cost calculation for 2005/06, putting the figure at NZ$58.2 million (AU$48.22 million).

Under the TSO, Telecom is obliged to provide certain local residential telephone services to residential customers who may not otherwise be provided with those services at an affordable price.

The commission calculates the cost of those services, which are met by the telecommunications industry. Telecom bears about 69 percent of the TSO cost, with most of the rest carried by Vodafone and TelstraClear.