NZ lines companies are 'best fit' for UFB rollout

Electrical lines companies are the “best fit” to assist the government in rolling out ultrafast broadband across New Zealand, says a visiting fibre specialist.

Telecom has rejected the claim, saying rolling fibre out over powerlines raises a whole raft of “resource consent and cosmetic” issues.

In a media release issued by the New Zealand Regional Fibre Group (NZRFG), which is made up of 19 electrical lines companies, fibre specialist Kim Kersey said lines companies were the logical choice to build large fibre networks.

Kersey was involved in the rollout of fibre to more than 10,000 US properties during his time as vice president of the Jackson Energy Authority. He is in New Zealand to perform network appraisals for a number of NZRFG members.

Lines companies had extensive assets, understood infrastructure and could rollout fibre above ground faster and more cost-efficiently than subterranean networks, Kersey said.

“The lines companies are owned by the ratepayers so they have the local interest and local investment in mind – backed by substantial community involvement.”

But Telecom spokesperson Mark Watts said Telecom’s existing fibre network already comprised more than 24,000km of fibre cabling and provided a better “springboard” for ultra-fast broadband rollout than NZRFG’s infrastructure.

“It’s an interesting contribution to the debate, but we maintain that we’ve sent two very strong proposals to government. We’ve already rolled out hundreds and hundreds of cabinets linking tens of thousands of houses.”

There could be resource consent difficulties for lines companies wishing to rollout fibre above ground, as well as “cosmetic issues”, Watts said.

“It’s just a simplistic broad-brush approach to say we’re a big national company and we don’t understand local communities. We understand communities intimately.”

What Jackson Energy Authority had done in Tennessee was “pretty small scale stuff” compared to what Telecom had so far achieved in New Zealand.

“We’ve already rolled out hundreds and hundreds of cabinets linking tens of thousands of houses.”

Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH) said last fortnight that more than 33 companies had sent in proposals to partner with the government in rolling out Ultra-Fast Broadband (100Mbit/s) to 75% of New Zealand homes by 2018.

CFH is expected to announce a timeline for selecting preferred partners tomorrow.