About ViOP calling services and further important information
VoIP landlines require power and internet connections to operate. Calls rely on your broadband connection to operate – in the event of power outages, your broadband and line won’t necessarily work (without power and internet connection) this includes emergency 111 calling.

We recommend having a charged mobile phone available & ready to use in the event of an emergency.

Rural landlines using the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), will become unavailable in the event of a power failure, and you will therefore be unable to use your landline to dial 111 in an Emergency.

The NZ Government has introduced a Commission 111 Contact Code regulation, giving you, the consumer, new rights, if you qualify as being Vulnerable.

If you or any person living at your address qualifies as a Vulnerable Consumer (subject to annual review) and have no other means of calling 111 during a power failure, you can apply through Ezykonect for an alternative means to call 111 emergency services.

A Vulnerable Consumer is someone at your residence who requires access to emergency services 24/7.

• Safety issues

• A disability and or a specific medical condition

• Is nominated by a competent person, (i.e. health practitioner, social worker, lawyer, family court judge).

• Have evidence of a protection order, a letter from a health practitioner, and documentation of impairment.

The Commerce Commission Code ensures that vulnerable users who are more likely to need to contact 111 in the event of an emergency are identified:

• Who have a phone service that doesn’t work in a power outage.

• Have no other means to contact the 111 emergency services

In November 2020, the Commerce Commission published the Commission 111 Contact Code in recognition that, as consumers move away from traditional copper-based voice services to newer telecommunications technologies, they may be unable to contact 111 emergency services during a power failure at their premises.

In particular, the Code recognises a subset of consumers who are more likely to need to contact the 111 emergency services and do not have a means to do so in the event of a power failure at their home.

The Code refers to this subset of people as vulnerable consumers and sets out mandatory requirements of providers of retail landline services to provide vulnerable consumers with appropriate means of contacting the 111 emergency services in the event of a power failure at their premises. You can read the full Commission 111 Contact Code on the Commerce Commission Website.

As a provider of ViOP landline phone and fixed wireless broadband services, Ezykonect must meet these mandatory requirements, and the first step is to make both existing and new consumers of our services aware of what the Code means to them.

To read more about the 111 Contact Code, or about how to be designated as a vulnerable consumer

Click the link for further information relating to the Emergency 111 code, and to understand whether you qualify as a Vulnerable consumer, along with set information relating to the process.