Lines companies best fit for fibre

Lines companies best fit for fibre

A visiting international fibre specialist says electricity lines companies are the obvious choice for activating New Zealand’s ultra-fast broadband platform.

And the man behind one of America’s earliest fibre to the door networks says the National Government is wise in its choice of minimum broadband speeds of 100Mbit/s in urban centres across the country.

US-based Kim Kersey is the man behind the Jackson Energy Company fibre network, one of America’s first fibre builds. The $75 million project has so far taken fibre to the door of over 10,000 premises with the company serving 16,000 customers and representing nearly 50% of homes passed by the fibre network.

He believes building in 100Mbit/s upload and download capability from day one is the right move as it will become the international standard within three years.

“Whether it is needed today is not so much the point. For some users, like a small business owner, having that capability available now is good. Having the speed available means you can throttle up or down as you need,” says Mr Kersey.

“Some might argue that it is an additional cost to the service provider in supporting the backhaul but building to that specification from the outset is a smart investment because you then have your network positioned for the future.”

“The whole essence of what the New Zealand Government is trying to do is provide a competitive service to the existing telecommunications broadband network because competition breeds innovation, new products and services and better pricing. The only way that level of competition can truly be implemented is by having another entity provide that service.”

Mr Kersey believes electricity lines companies are the best fit for building fibre networks because they have extensive assets and understand infrastructure.

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

Mr Kersey has just completed an appraisal of Northpower’s layer 2 fibre network and says the company has laid a solid platform from which it can substantially expand its fibre business.

He is also visiting fellow New Zealand Regional Fibre Group members Flute Network and Unison, both of which have fibre networks underway, before returning to America this week.

“The Jackson Energy Company is a multi-utility company and we recognised that fibre to the door is the way the world was going. It just makes good business sense to do things right from the start. We were two years in the planning and proceeded to build 20% of our network (a triple-play broadband service) underground but it made sense to utilise our pole network for cost efficiencies – just like it will for New Zealand,” says Mr Kersey.

ENDS

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