Fibre to the door - NZ’s future

Media release
17 December 2009

Fibre to the door - NZ’s future

A commitment to broadband speeds of at least 100Mbit/s has been reaffirmed by the New Zealand Regional Fibre Group.

To make this a reality the group is pledging to take fibre to the doors of as many Kiwi homes and businesses as possible – a concept not yet seen in New Zealand.

The lines and fibre company collective, an amalgamation of 18 entities that span the country, says New Zealanders deserve far better broadband connectivity than they currently have, or are ever likely to receive on prevailing networks that depend on a copper connection.

Steve Fuller, NZRFG spokesperson and Chief Executive of the fast expanding Christchurch fibre company Enable Networks, says Kiwis will end up being short-changed if they are not served directly by fibre. Minimum speeds of less than 100Mbit/s will be unacceptable in future.

Broadband users in other countries are already receiving the benefits of broadband speeds in excess of 100Mbit/s, with some now getting speeds of 1Gbit/s.

“By taking fibre right to the doors of homes and businesses as soon as possible, we will be letting everyday Kiwis tap into the vast potential of this powerful technology,” says Mr Fuller.

“10MBit/s is not going to be acceptable. That time is approaching faster than broadband users realise. Particularly when you compare ultra-fast fibre broadband network upload and download speeds to those of copper broadband.

“Fibre connectivity makes copper broadband seem like dial-up in terms of speed and copper is greatly limited in upload speed.

“What people need to realise, and the Government has certainly made this clear, is that the existing copper legacy network - whether it is partially upgraded or not - will not provide the quality or speed of broadband that we deserve and that many other countries are implementing now.

“Copper is also nearing its capacity limits, which is why 10 members of the NZRFG have already invested in fibre networks,” says Mr Fuller.

“The rest of the world is fast embracing fibre because it does not suffer from interference or inconsistency of performance. Its capacity is virtually unlimited, it is extremely reliable and transmits information at the speed of light which in effect, means you can send and receive significant quantities of information instantly.”

Through those attributes alone, it has been documented that fibre can provide immeasurable benefits to economic productivity and efficiency.

The New Zealand Government’s $1.5 billion ultra-fast fibre broadband initiative is designed to drastically improve the country’s communications infrastructure and put it on a level footing with other developed nations. It is awaiting bids from potential fibre partners and the NZRFG will be among those. The submission deadline is January 29.

International and local studies (Ericsson and The New Zealand Institute included) on the value of ultra-fast fibre networks show that a country like New Zealand stands to benefit by billions of dollars annually, within a handful of years.

“What fibre also means is that people can work from anywhere, anytime. They can link to work through real-time video connectivity and interact with colleagues as if they were in the office.

“I hear people asking why they need more than the current broadband speeds. Well, the vast majority of businesses in New Zealand are small enterprises who don’t have access to fast upload and download speeds. Even if they do receive performance that they deem satisfactory, it does not support the use of technology that can change their operational efficiency - e.g. virtualisation (efficient use of processing capability and storage), video conferencing and cloud computing.

“In a personal and entertainment sense, the efficiencies of fibre are quite astounding and when you can download the likes of a high definition Star Trek movie in less than 20 seconds, that says a lot about the capabilities of fibre.”

Mr Fuller says with fibre to the door, rather than to the cabinet, performance is not compromised by the last mile of copper.

“The intention of the NZRFG is to work with the Government to provide an extremely thorough, regionally focussed but nationally coordinated and consistent communications platform that supports the delivery of ultra-fast broadband services.

“100Mbit/s performance is just the start of that. The potential is much faster with these new fibre networks which are designed to provide up to 1Gbit/s - and even beyond. The transformation to an all fibre network will be as revolutionary for the nation as the introduction of electricity a century ago,” says Mr Fuller.

ENDS

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