In 2004 the NZ Government set out to establish a national relay service for the Deaf, Hearing Impaired and Speech Impaired communities of New Zealand.

Such a service would enable people in these communities to keep in touch by phone without needing the assistance of friends or family.

Sprint / Nextel, which operates relay services in many states in the US, was contracted to introduce Relay into New Zealand.

The service is operated from two Call Centres, the Traditional Relay Service Centre and the Video Relay Service Centre both based in Auckland with the TRS centre currently operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

New Zealand Relay employs approximately 25  people working as Relay Assistants and Video Interpreters, who work rostered shifts to ensure the service is staffed at all times day and night; plus a further 4 contractors who concentrate on providing Outreach services to the profoundly Deaf. 

We offer specialised services to help each of the communities we support. For the profoundly Deaf we can arrange for a TTY (Text Telephone) to be provided free of charge. We also offer the Video Relay Service (trial ) for those profoundly Deaf who prefer to communicate using New Zealand Sign Language.

If you’d like to know anything more about the New Zealand Relay Service or would like to apply for a TTY or to use the Video Relay Service, please contact our Helpdesk on 0800 4 713 713 (TTY) or 0800 4 715 715 (Voice).  Alternatively you can e-mail us at  helpdesk@nzrelay.co.nz