News

Access Standards team, Bill Dawid and Shaun Godfrey wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Entelar Group was established on 1st October 2022 and is a fully owned subsidiary of Spark. The DTC team is a part of the new Entelar Group and is responsible for performing the testing and certification/PTC for mobile services on behalf of Spark New Zealand. The requirements, process & deliverables remain unchanged.

As the year is closing, Bill Dawid and Shaun Godfrey wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Note that Spark NZ will be moving customers off the below types of lines. Here are the dates when they will be withdrawn.

As the year draws to a close Bill Dawid and Shaun Godfrey wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I have been involved with Access Standards since October 1988, but have decided to free up my time to do other things and retire, so will be finishing up on July 27. It is interesting to reflect back over the years and the changes in technology. In 1988 V.22 bis modems (1200 bps full duplex) were a big deal, now VDSL2 at 10s of Mbps is common place. Back in 1988, there were still end to end phone calls made where both the phones and exchange were entirely electromechanical. Now a VoIP call utilizes billions of solid state active elements to achieve the same thing. So, over the last 30 years I have seen a lot of change mainly resulting from the semiconductor industry being able to increase the density of silicon based integrated circuits at an exponential rate (Moore’s Law). For much of that time the speed has also increased, and the cost per active element decreased.

Over my time in Access Standards we have Telepermitted about 10,000 items including everything from replica candlestick phones through to immensely complex Session Border Controllers.

I would like to thank Bill Dawid and Shaun Godfrey for their teamwork over the past years, and their commitment to continuing to keep Access Standards going into the future.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank CPE suppliers for their patience and co-operation and also the Accredited Test Laboratories for their professional service over the years.

Kind regards
Richard Brent

A draft of PTC 216 covering the requirements for loudspeaking handsfree terminals was published in August for comment. No changes have been made to the specification and it is now published in final form.

As the year draws to a close Bill Dawid, Richard Brent and Shaun Godfrey wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

As the year draws to a close Bill Dawid, Richard Brent and Shaun Godfrey wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Further to the publication of PTC 208 in February, a minor change has been found necessary to clarify the testing requirements for Digital (usually USB) headsets. After some study of the USB to Audio specifications, and the data sheets of some of the chips used in the interface, it became clear that USB headsets do not necessarily include a G.711 narrowband codec. The telephony codec is usually implemented in the host system which will often be a SIP client running on a PC to which the USB headset is connected. The digital audio which passes across the USB interface is probably wider bandwidth than the 3.1 kHz telephony, but the SIP client will perform the necessary conversions. The operating system mixer function will then be able to switch seamlessly between wide bandwidth music and telephony.

This revision of PTC 208 clarifies the testing requirement for this scenario, requiring the headset and a compatible telephony application to be tested together. This is the same as an analogue headset which connects to the handset jack of a telephone being tested in conjunction with a telephone. The previous revision of PTC 208 followed AS/CA S004 could be interpreted to mean that a USB (or other digitally connected) headset which didn't have a specific narrowband codec incorporated didn't require most transmission parameters to be tested at all, which is not the intention, so these parameters must be tested in all cases.

Further to the previous news item (16 March), The TCF published an updated Interference Management Plan (IMP). It may be that this will require further revision as the latest ITU-T specification for VDSL2 (Rec G.993.2 January 2015) was published at about the same time which will require some updating of references.

In the meantime, PTC 274 has been updated to cover VDSL2 as it is currently implemented by Chorus in New Zealand. Rather than refer to the IMP, PTC 274 now refers directly to the appropriate ITU-T recomendations.

Over the latter half of 2015, most of the Chorus DSLAMs have been changed from Bandplan 997 to 998. The Telecommunications Carrier's Forum (TCF) Interference Management Plan (IMP) has yet to be updated to reflect this change, possibly because of the ITU-T delay in publishing G.993.2 (01/2015).

Figure 1 shows graphically the Downstream and Upstream frequency bands used by the new 998 bandplan 998ADE17-M2x-A, short name B8-11, and also the old 997 bandplan 997E17-M2x-A, short name B7-9, for comparison. The difference from a performance point of view will be higher Downstream speed traded off against lower Upstream speed. This asymmetry generally reflects the way the internet is used, i.e. stream music and videos and downloading music and movies.

There are other plans which will be included in the IMP when it is finalised, but these are subsets of B8-11 (i.e. lower maximum frequencies) and one plan which includes frequencies up to 30 MHz, 998ADE30-M2x-NUS0, (B8-16). However the current plan implemented by Chorus is B8-11, so testing will be to that plan.

PTC 274 Testing

Until the TCF formally publishes an updated Interference Management Plan, all PTC 274 testing shall test against the PSD masks of ITU-T Rec. G.993.2 (01/2015) Table B.6A Plan 998ADE17-M2x-A, (B8-11). The references for the other tests (total aggregate power, longitudinal balance and longitudinal output voltage) remain the same. The requirements are well summarized in AS/CA S043:2015 Part 2 tables O1 and O2.

Following comments on our draft of PTC 208 back in August last year, The specification is now ready to go to a final version and lose its draft status.

As the tests are similar to PTC 200 and PTC 220, test Laboratories with accreditation to those specifications will be able to test to PTC 208. The list of accreditations will be updated as Laboratories indicate that they wish to test to the new specification.

All headsets must now be tested to PTC 208 and test reports to other specifications will not be accepted after March 31st 2016.

As the year draws to a close Bill Dawid, Richard Brent and Shaun Godfrey wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

For years we have relied upon Test Reports against PTC 200, PTC 220 and AS/CA S004 for evaluating headsets for PTC purposes. Recently, following some difficult to answer questions, it has become apparent that these specifications are not headset specific, and come up short in addressing headsets completely.

In an attempt to clarify some of the grey areas, a new specification, PTC 208 has been drafted to address the requirements of headsets specifically.

The method of payment by credit card has been upgraded during January 2015 to allow overseas customers to pay Spark bills directly on-line at any time. The system previously required the customer to enter a phone number which was cross checked against the account number, but couldn't be used by overseas customers who didn't have a local phone number. The change to the system allows the customer to enter a line number which appears on the invoice as a 9 digit number starting with "16". It is in the form 16xx-yyyyy, and can be found in the invoice under the heading "Rental & Activity" which is usually on page 3 of the invoice.

The process is as follows:

As the year draws to a close Bill Dawid, Richard Brent and Shaun Godfrey wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

To all VDSL2 Modem Suppliers

Chorus are proposing changes to their access network which is relevant to Spark’s VDSL residential and business customers. We have requested Chorus to test the VDSL modems used by our customers within the Chorus test lab to ensure they will continue to operate after the changes. We expect this testing to take place in February 2015.

Please can you confirm that you are able to make the modems listed below available for this testing. As indicated in an earlier E-mail, Chorus are planning to change the VDSL2 bandplan on their DSLAMs from 997 to 998. This is because bandplan 998 is becoming dominant internationally, and Chorus consider the supply of chipsets which can do 997 in both modems and DSLAMs will begin to dry up.

Chorus has agreed to test a range of VDSL modems used by retail service providers to ensure that there will be no operational problems when they implement the change. Of most significance is a test where the DSLAM running bandplan 997 is switched off for a short period, reconfigured for bandplan 998, and then switched on again.

Possible outcomes are:

1. The modem will automatically resync to 998 without any customer intervention.
2. The modem requires to be reset, by the customer either pushing a reset button, or turning the power off for a short period.
3. The modem needs to be reconfigured by the customer for 998 operation.
4. The modem needs new firmware to implement 998.
5. The modem hardware cannot implement 998 at all.

Chorus propose to begin testing in early February 2015, and the purpose of this letter is to seek samples of each Telepermitted modem for 998 testing to be undertaken.

The modems could be returned immediately on completion of testing, although there would be an advantage if Chorus where to hold on to the modem to enable future testing should DSLAM hardware or software be upgraded at some future date. Note that the testing of Telepermitted VDSL modems will be undertaken by Chorus at no cost.

Chorus would like all providers that currently provide VDSL2 capable modems to their customers, for use on the Chorus network, to provide Chorus with 2 of each Telepermitted or ChorusPermitted model.

These modems:

• Should be configured as they would be for their customers and have the current software versions loaded.
• Provided with any default passwords installed on the modems and contact details for their Technical person/team in case of any issues.
• Ideally Chorus would like 2x of each modem so that if a modem has an abnormal behaviour they can check it against another of the same model & configuration (to rule out a modem fault) and also it will speed up testing, as some tests can be run in parallel
• Will be needed for at least 3 month (6 months max), but would ask that RSPs to indicate if they would like Chorus to retain or return the modems at completion of this series of testing. If retained, Chorus would store modems in our CPC lab.
• Should like to receive modems in mid Jan to enable build of lab to start early in the new year.

They should be sent to:

Chorus
Level 10, State Insurance Building
1 Willis Street
WELLINGTON

Attn: Chandra Palani

From August 8, 2014, Telecom New Zealand becomes Spark New Zealand. Some of the Telepermit Website has been updated to reflect this name change, and the rest of it will be updated progressively. In the meantime, all instances of "Telecom" should be read as "Spark".

This does not change any other aspects of the Telepermit system, although we are considering a minor change to the Telepermit label format.

We get a number of questions regarding the colour of the Telepermit label. The grant letters state:

"Colour:
Tick and Word "TELEPERMIT" Telecom Green (Pantone PMS 375)
Other Text and Box: Either Pantone PMS 375 or Black
Background: Either White or Silver"

It is often inconvenient to add the green colour especially if the label is part of a larger label printed in black on a white background. We have usually agreed to the label being printed in black on a white or silver background, and this notice formally approves the use of black printing on a white or silver background as being an acceptable alternative to the green printing.

From now on the instructions on Telepermit grant letters will read

"Colour:
Tick and Word "TELEPERMIT" Telecom Green (Pantone PMS 375) or Black
Other Text and Box: Either Pantone PMS 375 or Black
Background: Either White or Silver"

As the year draws to a close Bill Dawid, Richard Brent and Shaun Godfrey wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

From Friday Decemeber 6, 2013, our address will be:

Access Standards
Level 10, Telecom Central, Boulcott
42-52 Willis Street
PO Box 570
WELLINGTON 6140
NEW ZEALAND

Deliveries:

Access Standards
Level 10, Telecom Central, Boulcott
42-52 Willis Street
WELLINGTON 6011
NEW ZEALAND

Our Telephone numbers remain the same:

Richard Brent

Email:
Phone:	+64 4 382 5344

Bill Dawid

Email:
Phone:	+64 4 382 5730

Shaun Godfrey

Email:
Phone:	+64 4 802 9860

Alan Reedy decided to call it a day and has retired. His last day was last Friday (19th April). We celebrated the occassion with our previous Manager Doug Burrus with a very pleasant lunch on Friday. Apologies to anyone who tried to contact us by phone on Friday afternoon.

Alan started with Access Standards in 2000, so has been with the group for 13 years. At that time V.90 dial-up modems were the state of the art for internet access, with ADSL just about to be released. Interestingly the other technology on everbodies lips back then was VoIP, with predictions that circuit switches such as our NEAX would be switched off within 5 years. 13 years latter, Internet access has moved from V.90 modems to ADSL to ADSL2+ to VDSL2 with Fibre and LTE mobile about to pick up the high performance end. VoIP on the other hand has not caused many circuit switches to be shut down, and has made a bigger impact on the PBX/Private voice network.

Over this time Alan has processed thousands of Telepermits and I'm sure he will be already enjoying a break from that. Like Doug he has plenty to keep himself occupied during his retirement. I would like to thank Alan personally for his huge contribution to Access Standards and its clients over the last 13 years, and wish him all the best in a long and enjoyable retirement.

To help pick up some of Alan's workload, Shaun Godfrey will be joining the group on a part time basis. Shaun currently works with the mobile test team, and in particular gathers the documentation and test reports together for mobile devices not only for PTC purposes, but also for Telecom as a mobile device supplier. He is very familiar with the regulatory requirements around Safety, EMC, and all the various radio standards (note that some of the newer mobile devices can have 4 or 5 different radio transmitters). Shaun's contact details are:

Email: shaun.godfrey@telecom.co.nz

Phone:+64-4-802 9860
Mobile:+64-27-284 4809

Physical Address: level 3, Gen-i Plaza,
57 - 65 Manners Street
WELLINGTON 6011

As the year draws to a close Alan Reedy, Bill Dawid, and Richard Brent wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

As the year draws to a close Alan Reedy, Bill Dawid, and Richard Brent wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

We have moved to a new address from the Tory Street Telecom Centre where we spent the past 10 years.
Our new address is:

L3 Gen-i Plaza
57-65 Manners Street
Wellington 6011

Our phone numbers remain the same, although at this point we do not have a fax machine, but will advise when this is connected.

Electronic Telepermit Applications

We now have no facilities for storing any paper based files, so it would be appreciated if all Telepermit Application documentation could be sent electronically either as email attachments, ftp sites or physically on CD or DVD.

11.9 Continuing Obligation

Provided:

The obligations of the Telepermit Holder stated in clauses 11.1 to 11.8 shall remain for the reasonable life time of the product.

• The reasonable life time of a product would be generally the same as the time over which there is an onus to repair or service a product under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.
• Telecom may cancel a Telepermit for reasons set out in cluase 12.2. However PTC 100 and the Consumer Guarantess Act still apply to product which has already been sold.

PBX installers are reminded that Customer Equipment (CE) must take its clocking or synchronising signals from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

If the PBX is correctly set up so that it takes its synchronising signals from the PSTN then the PABX will in effect become part of the network and clocking glitches (slips) between the PBX and the PSTN will be eliminated.

This means the installer must set up the PBX to accept clocking pulses for the PBX from the incoming E1 stream; different PABX models may use different terminology such as:

• RX clock
• RX Timing
• Loopback

Currently the Telecom PSTN is experiencing 10,000 slips a month and they are all coming from DTLM (our local variety of E1) and PRA interfaces with PBXs. This can only be happening because installers have set the PBX to use its internal clock to synchronise its interfacing arrangements.

Our charges for Telepermit processing were last increased on 1 July 2003. While we have tried to keep fee increases to a minimum there is an inevitable point where we can no longer absorb our increased costs.

In the circumstances, we will be increasing our Telepermit processing charges from 1 January 2011. Our revised charging structure, inclusive of GST, will be as follows:-

Telepermit applications received before 1 January 2011 will be processed at the current charge, but only if they have been sent with all the necessary submission information by that date.

Note that the additional charge related to the additional work involved in examining overseas test reports does NOT apply to electrical safety test reports (overseas test labs report to IEC 950 or IEC 60950, which apply also in New Zealand).

We will continue to provide our usual advisory service to Telepermit applicants at no cost, as we are happy to assist suppliers to meet our requirements in what ever way we can.