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111 Contact Code
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111 Contact Code

Zylex supplies residential landline (home phone) services over fibre. Fibre, wireless, HFC and satellite technologies all need mains power at your property to work. If the power goes out, your home phone will stop working unless you have another way to call 111.

The Commerce Commission's 111 Contact Code requires us to make sure that vulnerable consumers have a way of contacting the 111 emergency service during a power failure, at no cost to them. This page explains what that means and how to apply.

In an emergency right now, call 111. If your home phone is not working, use a mobile phone, or a neighbour's phone.

Please share this page with everyone who lives at your address, and with anyone who helps care for them. The person who needs help in a power cut is often not the person whose name is on the account, and either of you can apply.

Your home phone will not work in a power cut

These will not work during a power failure unless they have their own working battery or backup power:

An old copper landline usually keeps working in a power cut, because it draws power from the phone line itself. Copper is being retired across New Zealand, and Zylex home phone lines run over fibre, so this page applies to you.

Other ways to contact 111 in a power failure

Who is a vulnerable consumer?

Under the Code, you are a vulnerable consumer if both of these apply:

  1. You are at particular risk of needing to contact the 111 emergency service — for example because of a health condition, a disability, or a personal safety risk; and
  2. You do not have another way to contact 111 that will keep working for at least 8 hours during a power failure — for example, you have no mobile phone, or there is no mobile coverage at your address.

Someone else can apply on your behalf — a family member, carer, support worker or health professional.

You need to have a home phone line with us. If you have broadband from Zylex but no home phone line, the Code does not apply to your service and we cannot accept an application — but do talk to us, because adding a home phone line is inexpensive and we can then help.

You may already have a way to call 111

If any of these is true at your address, you probably already have what the Code calls an appropriate means, and we would normally decline an application on that basis:

If you are not sure whether what you have counts, call us before applying and we will work it out with you.

What Zylex will provide

If your application is accepted, we will supply you with an appropriate means of contacting 111 during a power failure. Depending on your situation this is usually a mobile phone, or a battery backup unit for your fibre ONT and router that runs for at least 8 hours. We will talk with you about what suits your circumstances.

This is free. You will not be charged for the device, its delivery, installation, maintenance, replacement or disposal. We will arrange it as soon as reasonably practicable after your application is accepted, give you instructions for using it, and check or test it at least every 36 months. We will also contact you once a year to make sure what we gave you still suits you and still works.

If we offer you something that meets the Code and you turn it down, the Code treats your application as withdrawn, and you would be left without a way to call 111 in a power cut. If what we suggest does not suit you, please tell us why rather than declining — we would much rather find something that works for you.

We cannot refuse you service

Zylex will not decline to supply, or stop supplying, a residential landline service to anyone because they are, or may become, a vulnerable consumer.

How to apply

The form asks you to name one person who can confirm your situation — for a health condition or a disability that is a health practitioner; for a personal safety risk it is a police officer, a registered social worker, a lawyer, or a Family Court judge. We contact them, with your permission.

If you would rather provide a document instead — a letter from your doctor, a protection order, a notice showing you are a medically dependent electricity consumer, or proof of an impairment — that is equally acceptable under the Code. Please do not email or post documents like these to us unprompted. Call us instead and we will arrange a secure way to show them to us, and record only that we have seen them.

Complete the 111 Contact Code application form and return it to us by any of the ways below. If you would rather apply over the phone, or you need help filling in the form, contact us and we will complete it with you.

We will tell you whether your application has been accepted or declined within 10 working days of receiving a complete application.

We can only decline an application on the limited grounds set out in the Code — for example if you are not a residential landline customer, if the evidence provided is not sufficient, or if you already have a means of contacting 111 that works through a power failure. If something is missing or unclear we will contact you and help you put it right rather than simply declining.

If your circumstances change

Please tell us if you no longer need the service, if you move address, or if you change or leave your Zylex landline service, so we can update your record and arrange collection or replacement of any equipment.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your application, or anything else under the 111 Contact Code, please phone us first and we will work through it with you. A conversation sorts most things out faster than anything written.

If we cannot resolve it, you can take it further. There are two different routes, and it is worth knowing which is which:

More information about the Code, including the Code itself and the Telecommunications Forum's plain-English fact sheet, is on the Commerce Commission's 111 Contact Code page.

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