Telecom NZ signs wholesale fibre deal for Whangarei

Telecom New Zealand has signed a wholesale services agreement with Northpower Fibre, which is responsible for delivering a fibre broadband network in the country’s northernmost city of Whangarei, as part of the national Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative.

The agreement will enable Telecom NZ and its subsidiary Gen-i to deliver ultrafast broadband services to homes and businesses in the Northland region, and acting Telecom CEO Chris Quin said that his company is working closely with Northpower Fibre to integrate its new input products into Telecom’s national, end-to-end fibre-based network.

“Whangarei is at the centre of economic activity in Northland,” said Mr. Quin. “Our partnership with Northpower Fibre will ensure that we continue to deliver on the objectives of the Government’s UFB investment.

“UFB is a crucial element of the overall network that will enable Whangarei businesses and government agencies to boost productivity, increase efficiencies, reduce costs and be more flexible. It powers solutions such as video conferencing, online collaboration tools and cloud computing,” he added.

Ericsson has previously been selected to provide Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) technology for the Northpower Fibre Network being built in Whangarei.

Other vendors which have won a role in the UFB project include Alcatel-Lucent, which is providing its IP/MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) solution for the areas of Hawke’s Bay, Rotorua and Taupo; and Chinese vendor Huawei, which has been awarded a contract to supply fibre equipment for the city of Christchurch.

The UFB initiative has been set up as a public-private partnership, with the state-owned Crown Fibre Holdings representing the government and forming alliances with local partners, including Northpower, UltraFast Fibre, Enable Networks and Chorus.

The New Zealand government has allocated public funds of NZD1.5bn ($1.2bn) for the project, which aims to connect 75 per cent of the country’s population by 2019 and deliver speeds of 100Mbps initially, with speed increases of up to 10 Gbps anticipated further down the line.