Hobsonville and West Harbour high speed broadband

Hobsonville and West Harbour high speed broadband roll-out completed

Thousands more Hobsonville and West Harbour residents can now benefit from faster internet access as local telecommunications network operator Chorus completes its work to rev-up broadband speeds in the area.

Chorus has been working for the last six months deploying 30km of fibre optic cable and installing 27 new fibre fed cabinets to extend ADSL2+ broadband speeds to customers not already getting the faster internet experience following upgrade work at the local telephone exchange.

This massive investment programme is built on the 84km of fibre already in the local network and is part of Telecom’s commitment to enable the delivery of broadband connections of at least 10Mbps to 80 percent of New Zealanders by the end of 2011.

Chorus Fibre-to-the-Node Programme Manager Ed Beattie said each cabinet is the equivalent of a mini telephone exchange.

“About 5,500 customers are now connected to the new fibre fed cabinets which contain ADSL2+ broadband equipment previously located in the local telephone exchange. The cabinets were required for these customers because the closer you are to the broadband equipment the faster your broadband speed is.

“Around half of homes connected to the new cabinets are within five hundred metres of our fibre optic cable network and ninety percent within one kilometre. This provides an ideal springboard for even faster broadband speeds in the future through VDSL2 technology and fibre to the home” he said.

Hobsonville and West Harbour customers who are near the local telephone exchange will continue to receive service directly from the broadband equipment located at the exchange.

Mr Beattie noted that although the broadband network has been upgraded, customers also have an important part to play in making the most of the new faster broadband capability.

“A customer’s broadband service is also affected by factors including their broadband plan, modem, computer, and the wiring in their home or business.

“We encourage Hobsonville and West Harbour residents who believe their broadband performance is still limited in some way to talk directly with their broadband service provider.”

Chorus’ focus is now on installing the first of 38 new cabinets in Glen Eden later this year. In all, Chorus is over halfway through the roll out of about 3,600 fibre fed cabinets nationwide and they will connect a further 3,000km of fibre optic cable to Telecom’s 25,000km fibre optic network by the end of next year.

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Fibre-fed cabinet facts

• Chorus has been upgrading cabinets across more than 20 centres around New Zealand. Taupo and Greymouth were the first towns to have their broadband upgrades completed
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• About 750,000 customers will be connected to Chorus’ cabinets by the end of 2011
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• Each cabinet will generally service up to 300 customers
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• The cabinet body is made of 240kg of marine grade aluminium
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• Cabinets are coated in a special paint to facilitate graffiti removal
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• They contain battery back-up power supply as well as a generator connection in case of power-cuts
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• At full load a cabinet uses 1200 watts, the same power as a one-bar heater
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• They are designed to limit noise to about 30 decibels, just above the level of a whisper
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• 650 key parts in each cabinet (1,150 including fastenings)
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• 2 tonnes of concrete per cabinet base
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About Chorus

Chorus is the operationally separate Telecom business unit that manages the local access network in New Zealand. The Chorus network is made up of local telephone exchanges and copper or fibre optic cables that connect approximately 1.8 million New Zealand homes and businesses. Its field service technicians visit more than one million homes and businesses each year to install or repair phone or internet services for a range of telecommunications providers.

Information on Chorus’ high speed broadband project can be viewed online at: http://www.chorus.co.nz/enhancing-the-broadband-network

The Telecom Group's fibre optic network can be viewed online at www.broadbandmap.govt.nz

ENDS

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