Background information about the NZ Relay Service
The NZ Relay Service began in 2004. It helps New Zealanders who are Deaf, hard-of-hearing, experiencing hearing loss, Deafblind, or who experience speech impediments to use telecommunications services to communicate.
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This service, which is free of charge, addresses the inequalities in telephone service access that traditional telecommunications create for these communities.
The Government's goals for providing this service are to promote equitable communication, increase participation in the workforce and community through communication, and help overcome telephone access disparities.
As communication technology has rapidly advanced (including smartphones, tablets, and laptops), so too has NZ Relay. Modern technologies now feature applications with robust video chat, enabling New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) users to communicate directly with friends and family. Similarly, companies now offer diverse ways for customer interaction, such as via social media and AI-powered online chat.
In line with this evolution, the NZ Relay app was introduced in 2021. Services are now provided directly to users via the app on their personal devices at home, moving away from a model reliant on a managed pool of specialised equipment. The relay service has also been enhanced with Captioned Relay via the app, offering a streamlined communication tool directly to the user's personal device.
In line with MBIE’s responsibility for funding the service, they are issuing a contract tender for the operation of the relay service in mid-2026, which looks at service delivery in 2027 and beyond. The objective of this process is to make sure the service remains relevant, aligns with its purpose, and meets users' needs.