Infrastructure, development and primary sector national direction

Telecommunication networks are critical national infrastructure. They are essential for conducting business, operating other critical national infrastructure, and for delivering key services such as education, health, finance and government.

The Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Telecommunication Facilities) Regulations 2016 (NES-TF) enable telecommunication providers⁴¹ to install and operate a range of low-impact telecommunication facilities without a resource consent, provided they comply with relevant standards. The NES-TF first came into effect in 2008 and was most recently updated in 2016. The types of telecommunication facilities permitted by the NES-TF include installation and operation of antennas, cabinets, poles and customer connection lines (ie, fibre and copper cables).

District plan rules set other resource consent requirements for telecommunication facilities that fall outside the scope of the NES-TF. Where a district plan classifies a telecommunication activity as a permitted or controlled activity, but it is not permitted under NES-TF, the activity defaults to a controlled activity. A local authority can determine what type of consent is required, whether consultation is necessary, and can impose conditions on resource consents. For telecommunication facilities regulated by NES-TF (eg, poles in the road reserve), where a district plan classifies its construction as a permitted or controlled activity, but it is not permitted under the NES-TF, the activity defaults to a controlled activity.

District or regional plan rules guide the requirement for resource consents for:

• natural and/or special environments (such as biodiversity areas, notable trees and outstanding landscapes) covered by Subpart 5 of the NES-TF
• earthworks covered by Subpart 6 of the NES-TF.

^{41 The term ‘telecommunication provider’ refers to a facility operator subject to the NES-TF. This includes a network operator (as defined in section 5 of the Telecommunications Act 2001), the Crown or a Crown agent.}

The NES-TF has not kept pace with changes in the built environment

Towns and cities in New Zealand are continuing to intensify to accommodate housing growth, leading to taller, more compact buildings.

Greater numbers of residential buildings exceed the height of telecommunication poles, which increases the likelihood of black spots and connectivity disruptions. To work around the NES-TF, providers must either build more, smaller poles to maintain coverage, pursue lease arrangements to place antennas on buildings, or obtain resource consents for telecommunications facilities that do not meet activity standards. The telecommunication sector has told the Government this situation is becoming uneconomic, expressing a need for changes to the permitted heights of telecommunication poles.

The NES-TF is not keeping pace with changes in technology

Telecommunication infrastructure is advancing rapidly. Households and businesses want more modern telecommunication technology, with increasing expectations for network performance in terms of capacity, coverage, reliability and speed. However, several substantive ongoing network upgrades are not enabled by the NES-TF as follows.

• The roll-out of 5G mobile technology requires a larger, permitted, notional envelope for antennas, and larger cabinets, than those currently permitted by the NES-TF.
• The activity standards for cabinets do not provide enough space for new equipment, including back-up batteries for network resilience.
• No standards in the NES-TF support the construction and operation of renewable electricity generators. (These are often used for off-grid energy solutions in remote locations, or as back-up for network resilience.)
• Customer connection lines (ie, fibre broadband) to heritage buildings must be installed in accordance with historic heritage district plan rules. These rules vary between districts and are subject to different levels of restriction, which is costly and can be a barrier to fibre broadband access.

The status quo is resulting in uncertainty and high costs for telecommunication providers

The current rules in the NES-TF are too restrictive and do not cover a range of low impact telecommunication facilities. Telecommunication providers have had to obtain resource consents to roll out or upgrade many low-impact telecommunication facilities on a site-by-site basis. This is resulting in significant costs and delays for rolling out or upgrading necessary telecommunication services. These inefficiencies may mean that telecommunication providers forgo or delay important investment in upgrading or expanding telecommunication networks.

The proposal is to amend the NES-TF by:

• updating the existing permitted activity standards relating to poles, headframes, cabinets and antennas
• expanding the scope of existing permitted activity standards (ie, permitting new poles in more zones and removing restrictions in the road reserve)
• enabling renewable electricity generators for telecommunication facilities
• enabling temporary telecommunication facilities
• enabling customer connection lines to heritage buildings
• making other minor technical updates to ensure the NES-TF is fit for purpose.

Subpart 5 of NES-TF, which states that rules in district and regional plans apply in certain environmentally significant areas, will largely be retained.

More detail on the proposed provisions is included in attachment 1.5 of this document. No existing provisions of the NES-TF beyond those included in this proposal are open for public consultation.

The amendments will expand the application of the NES-TF to recognise new activities and zones provided in the National Planning Standards.⁴² The proposed NES-TF includes new definitions for ‘renewable energy generator’, which will align with changes proposed to the NPS-REG, and for ‘temporary telecommunication facility’.

^{42 Ministry for the Environment. 2019. National Planning Standards (PDF, 933KB). Wellington: Ministry for the Environment.}

The proposal is to amend the permitted activity standards for poles, cabinets and antennas and feedback on options for specific changes as summarised in table 6. Further detail on these proposed provisions is included in attachment 1.5 of this document.

Table 6: Options for proposed amendments to permitted activity standards

The NES-TF has several limits on the location of new or replacement poles both in and outside the road reserve. In the road reserve, a replacement pole must be within 5 metres of the original pole it is replacing, and new poles must be within 100 metres of an existing pole. Outside the road reserve, a replacement pole must be within 5 metres of the original pole it is replacing, and new poles are only permitted in rural zones, with a 50-metre setback from any building used for residential or educational purposes.

Telecommunication providers have told the Government these rules are too restrictive and advised that they still rely heavily on district plan rules to deploy new and replacement infrastructure.

Several changes are proposed to the NES-TF to permit new poles in more areas. The proposal allows placement of new poles to be based on network design requirements and commercial feasibility, and not to be constrained by the location of existing infrastructure. The proposed amendments would:

• remove limitations on the location of new or replacement poles in the road reserve, so that new poles can be erected anywhere in the road reserve
• amend the 50-metre setback rule for new poles in a rural zone so they must be 50 metres from any building used for sensitive activities on a neighbouring property (this applies to poles both in the road reserve and outside of the road reserve)
• permit the installation of new poles outside the road reserve in commercial, industrial, local centre, mixed-use and neighbourhood centre zones. New poles in mixed-use, local centre and neighbourhood centre zones will include a height-in-relation-to-boundary setback of 4 metres and a 60-degree recession plane. In all other zones (ie, open space, residential and special purpose zones), replacement poles can be built 10 metres from the original pole.

New poles in these areas would still be subject to district or regional plan rules if they are in an environmentally significant area listed in Subpart 5 of the NES-TF, and may still require a resource consent.

The NES-TF proposes to fill the gap in national standards for renewable electricity generators that power telecommunication facilities. The proposed changes include:

• permitting renewable and non-renewable electricity generators for an off-grid site as a back-up in rural zones
• activity performance standards requiring a generator or facility to be located a minimum of 50 metres away from buildings on adjacent properties used for sensitive activities
• proposed new standards for solar panels requiring the panel footprint to be less than 100 square metres
• a maximum permitted height of 25 metres for wind turbines.

The proposal would make installation of a customer connection line (such as fibre optic broadband cables) to a heritage building or structure a permitted activity. To avoid damage to heritage buildings, permitted activity standards would require installers to make use of existing entry points, and ensure that a connection line would not be attached to a primary feature of the front façade of a heritage building or structure.

Non-compliance with permitted activity standards would mean the installations would be either a controlled activity or a restricted discretionary activity – the latter being the preferred option. Under either option, the activity status would limit consideration of resource consents to effects on historic heritage values and any other reasonable alternative installation solution.

No standards in the existing NES-TF relate to temporary telecommunication facilities. These are important in emergency events and were critical during Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023. A new permitted activity is proposed for a temporary telecommunication facility for coverage or additional capacity.

The proposal is to amend the NES-TF to include time limits for temporary telecommunication facilities of:

• up to six months for emergencies and maintenance
• up to three months for events or short periods during high demand (ie, holiday periods at a campsite).

This change would also permit the installation and operation of temporary telecommunication facilities in natural and/or special environments protected under the NES-TF⁴³ in emergencies, if the protected areas are not damaged or altered. The maximum height of a temporary telecommunication facility is proposed to be 25 metres, with a maximum footprint of no more than 15 square metres (see figure 7 in attachment 1.5.1).

^{43 For details of these areas, see Subpart 5 of the NES-TF.}

The proposed changes allow district plan rules to be more lenient than the standards in the NES-TF for temporary telecommunication facilities. This means district councils can use Schedule 1 plan-making processes⁴⁴ to incorporate longer timeframes for temporary telecommunication facilities than those outlined above.

^{44 Schedule 1 of the RMA provides for the preparation, change and review of policy statements and plans.}

Table 7 outlines the anticipated impacts of the NES-TF proposal on various parties, with more detail available in the Interim Regulatory Impact Statement: Amendments to the National Environmental Standards for Telecommunication Facilities 2016 on the Ministry for the Environment’s website.

Table 7:         Overview of anticipated impacts of proposed amendments to the NES-TF

The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform considers the proposals to be consistent with the purpose of the RMA because they:

• provide consistent rules to develop, operate, protect and upgrade telecommunication networks which is critical national infrastructure that supports the social, economic and cultural wellbeing of people and communities, and is crucial for public health and safety as it enables people to contact emergency services. 
• support meeting the telecommunication needs of present and future generations by enabling newer technologies to be installed as permitted activities (where standards to manage environmental effects are met) which will improve coverage to rural areas and speed and connectivity nationwide.

The proposed changes to the NES-TF are designed to enable telecommunication facilities to meet increasing demand, and to deliver affordable and reliable mobile and internet coverage and connectivity. The Crown can protect Māori interests and support Māori development (ie, Māori enterprise) by ensuring Māori have access to affordable and reliable telecommunications.

Although substantial changes are proposed to the NES-TF, it will retain existing settings for Māori engagement when rolling out or upgrading telecommunication infrastructure in areas of cultural significance to Māori. For this reason, the amended NES-TF will continue to be Treaty compliant.

We have not identified any significant impacts of the proposals on Treaty settlements or related arrangements.

Consultation will be necessary to test whether iwi, hapū and other Māori groups have concerns about the proposal, or any perceived impacts on sites of significance to Māori, marae, Māori land, land returned under Treaty settlements or other matters of significance to Māori groups.

General material on implementation supporting this proposal, including the statutory requirements, is provided in section 4.

Specific to the proposed changes to the NES-TF, following consultation and final decisions from the Government on changes, the updated NES-TF would take effect 28 days after it is gazetted.