NZ Relay service involves a relay assistant serving as the "ears and voice" on phone calls between a Deaf, hearing-impaired, deaf-blind, or speech-impaired user and a hearing party. The Relay Assistant (RA) speaks words typed by a deaf user on a textphone (TTY) or via the Internet and relays the hearing person’s spoken response by typing back to the NZ Relay user.

Yes. NZ Relay is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

No. There is no call surcharge for relay assistance. Local and national calls are free of charge.

Calls between a landline and a cellular mobile phone, long distance overseas calls, and calls to a premium number (0900) are chargeable. You must pre-register to make chargeable calls. For more information, see Customer Profile section at www.nzrelay.co.nz.

Note: You must still pay for your telephone line rental.

Local and National Calls*:
TTY: 0800 4 711 711
Voice: 0800 4 712 712

For cellular/mobile callers within NZ*:
TTY: (09) 237 8897
Voice: (09) 237 8898

For International callers dialing into NZ*:
TTY: +64 9 237 8897
Voice: +64 9 237 8898

Help Desk:
TTY: 0800 4 713 713
Voice: 0800 4 715 715

*Note: You must pre-register to make chargeable calls.

Voice Carry-Over (VCO) enables deaf or hearing-impaired people who prefer to use their own voice to speak directly to the party they are calling. The Relay Assistant (RA) will type the voice responses back to the VCO User who reads the typed message on a Textphone (TTY) screen.

Hearing Carry-Over (HCO) enables people who are speech-impaired to use their hearing abilities to listen directly to their party. The Relay Assistant (RA) voices the typed responses from the HCO user to the hearing person, who then speaks directly to the HCO user without RA interaction.

No. There are no limitations on the number of calls or length of time through NZ Relay.

Do not use relay for emergency services. Police receive all emergency text (TTY and FAX) calls for Police, Fire and Ambulance and coordinate these calls to the appropriate service. In case of emergency, please contact the Deaf emergency call centre directly:

Deaf Emergency Fax 0800 16 16 10
Deaf Emergency TTY 0800 16 16 16
Voice 111

If the NZ Relay call centre receives a request for a TTY emergency call, the NZ Relay call centre will attempt to outdial ‘111’ and relay the conversation between the caller and the emergency centre personnel.

Yes. You can make international (long distance overseas) calls through NZ Relay. Please have the country code, city code and telephone number ready for Relay Assistants. You must pre-register to make International calls. For more information, see Customer Profile section at www.nzrelay.co.nz

Yes. You can make a NZ Relay call from overseas to a New Zealand telephone number by dialing the NZ Relay international number to reach the NZ Relay call centre.

TTY: +64 9 237 8897
Voice: +64 9 237 8898

Yes. A Speech-to-Speech trial over a nine month period is included in the Contract between the MED and Sprint. It is currently planned to start this trial in September 2005.

The initial services provided by NZ Relay are being offered in a very short timeframe after the contract award to Sprint. There will be a major technology upgrade being implemented after the initial services to further expand the range of services including Speech-to-Speech

Yes. Internet access to the NZ Relay system is expected to be available on a trial basis before the end of 2004.

No. At this time, text paging services are not available through NZ RELAY.

Yes. A voice user of a cellular mobile telephone can make a relay call. A TTY user can access the NZ Relay system from certain models of mobile telephones.
To reach the NZ Relay call centre from a mobile telephone the user must dial either of the following national numbers. Cellular toll charges are applicable.

TTY: +64 9 237 8897
Voice: +64 9 237 8898

Yes. When you reach an answering machine, you may leave a message with the NZ Relay number and your telephone number to call back.

NZ Relay is for communication with people who are Deaf, hard-of-hearing, or have a speech disability. Only genuine calls through NZ Relay are requested.

The NZ Relay provider (Sprint and its subcontractor, Counties Power) reserves the right to interrupt or disconnect any relay call that is not genuine.

For more information, visit www.nzrelay.co.nz and click "Terms and Conditions".

Sprint, together with its subcontractor, Counties Power is the NZ Relay provider.

The NZ Relay call centre is operated by Counties Power. It is located in
Pukekohe, Auckland.

The role of NZ Relay Assistant (RA) is to voice everything you type and type everything that is heard. The RA serves as a "live" human telephone wire who serves as a link between Voice users and people who are deaf, hearing-impaired, or speech-impaired that are using Textphones (TTYs).

All NZ Relay calls are private and confidential. When you hang-up, your entire conversation is then erased. No records of conversations are kept or stored.

Prior to employment, every NZ Relay Assistant signs a Relay Center Code of Ethical Behavior agreement and undergoes a Relay Assistant code of ethics training.

1. Dial NZ Relay's TTY number (08004 711711)
2. The NZ Relay centre will answer with "HELLO GA"
3. You will need to press the 'space bar' a couple of times.
4. The NZ Relay centre will then answer with "HELLO NEW ZEALAND RELAY ASSISTANT ---- GA"
5. Make a relay call just like you would with a TTY.

1. Go to URL http://www.java.sun.com.
2. Look on the right side of column. Under popular downloads click on Java VM.
3. Look again on the right side of column. Under Free Download. Click on Get it Now.
4. Choose your Computer operating system and click on the Free Download button.
5. In the next box tick on the accept button.
6. Wait till the program is installed for several minutes.
7. In the next box click on the save or finish button.
8. Restart your computer.

You are required to register a customer profile if you wish to place calls to or from cellular/mobile network, to place International calls, or to place premium (0900) calls. These are classified as chargeable calls.

When you register for a Customer profile, you will be given an opportunity to choose a username and password. And when you place chargeable calls through NZ Relay, you will provide your username to verify that you have opened an account at NZ Relay call centre.

When you register, the NZ Relay call centre stores all of the customer profile information in a database. When you place a chargeable call, your account information is easily available for Relay Assistants when processing the calls.

A chargeable call is:


NZ Relay users are required to pre-register to make chargeable calls.

Pre-registration for chargeable calls are necessary so the NZ Relay system can automatically validate you have opened a NZ Relay customer account and bill you for chargeable calls.

Go to www.nzrelay.nz.co and click "Customer Profile" or call Help Desk at 0800 4 713 713 TTY or 0800 4 715 715 Voice.

If you are eligible, you can obtain a rental textphone from the government Textphone Equipment Pool.

The charges for a rental telephone are waived where a person meets the qualifying income thresholds.

The eligibility criteria for pool textphones are set out in an "A Guide to Renting a Textphone" published on the NZ Relay web site.

For more information, call Textphone Help Desk at 0800 4 715 715 TTY or 0800 4 716 716 Voice or visit at www.nzrelay.co.nz and click "Get Equipment".

Yes. If you are not eligible to rent a textphone you can purchase a textphone from the government Textphone Equipment Pool.

For more information, call Textphone Help Desk at 0800 4 713 713 TTY or 0800 4 715 715 Voice or visit at www.nzrelay.co.nz and click "Get Equipment".

Please check that you have:

• Connect the textphone to the telephone network according to the manual or video instructions
• Connect power to the textphone and the unit is turned on and power on message is displayed
• Contact your telephone service provider and the telephone service provider has tested and verified that the line is operating correctly

If these steps do not solve the problem, please call Help Desk at 0800 4 716 716 TTY or 0800 4 717 717 Voice.

If you rent a textphone in the Textphone Equipment Pool, it can be repaired for you. For more information, call Help Desk or www.nzrelay.co.nz and click "Get Equipment".

The NZ Relay call centre supports the following protocols:

45.5 Baudot (US)
50 Baudot (International including NZ)
V.18
V.21 (European 300 bps ASCII)
V.23 (European 1200/75 bps ASCII)

If your old Textphone model has one of the above protocols, you should be able to connect to NZ Relay system. For more information, call Textphone Help Desk at 0800 4 716 716 TTY.

Yes. The NZ Relay call centre supports the Bell 103 and V.21 300 bps ASCII protocols. Set your communications software to the following protocol at 300 baud speed.

Your input to NZ Relay is valuable. Call Help Desk to provide commendations or feedback.

TTY 0800 4 713 713
Voice 0800 4 715 715
Fax 0800 4 329 697

Mailing address:
Sprint International New Zealand
Private Bag 4
Pukekohe

The NZ Relay Help Desk hours are 1:00 PM to 10:30 PM, Monday — Friday.

You also may leave a recorded message after-hours, and your call will be returned at the next business day.

Yes. Call Help Desk and inquire for marketing materials and/or presentations.