Have UFB delays compromised process?

Concern is mounting in the telecommunications industry around the delay in rolling out ultrafast broadband fibre and that may be compromising the bidding process, Labour’s spokesperson for communications and IT Clare Curran said today.

“The Government must tell New Zealanders when it will announce its partners in the UFB rollout. There are now too many questions being asked about the role that Telecom will play and whether other bidders have been wasting their time,” Clare Curran said.

“David Stone from the Telecommunications Carriers Forum was reported today saying that while the results of the bidding process are still unknown, he believed the Government's UFB plan had been considerably delayed.

“This raises serious questions about the process. You have to ask whether the Government is ‘shifting the goalposts’ and whether other companies bidding for work might be entitled to compensation, if there is a fait accompli being undertaken to include Telecom in the bidding.

“A call for expressions of interest from serious bidders opened in December last year. It’s now the end of June and there is no word on when an announcement will be made.

“We are still waiting for CFH to either announce who it is going to enter into negotiations with, or more likely, that there is to be some additional re-tendering and there will be a delay in that process.

“There is also speculation that work still to be done around the role that a structurally separated Telecom would play in the rollout of UFB is causing delays.

“Last week Steven Joyce publicly confirmed that the Crown would be prepared to invest alongside Chorus, and as part of Chorus, in new fibre infrastructure as long as it was clearly delineated.

“But the Government’s signals are creating uncertainty in the industry. “The Government must keep the industry and the public better informed on its rollout timetable, and what its intentions are with Telecom.”

ENDS

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