Another concrete step towards ultra-fast rollout

Crown Fibre Holdings’ announcement today of a shortlist of partners for the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) Initiative and plans to commence negotiations for the first stage of the roll-out shows further solid progress, says Communications and Information Technology Minister Steven Joyce.

Of its shortlist of 14, Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH) has initially elected to commence negotiating binding offers with three regional fibre providers: NorthPower (covering the Whangarei area); the Central North Island Fibre Consortium (covering Hamilton, Tauranga, Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Tokoroa, New Plymouth, Hawera and Wanganui); and Alpine Energy (covering Timaru).

Mr Joyce says the announcement is an important and exciting step closer to the business end of the UFB Initiative.

“CFH’s shortlist shows there are a good list of potential partners for the Crown to deliver on its UFB objective of 75 percent coverage across the country within 10 years.

“Throughout the UFB process I have been urging potential partners for the Crown to put their best feet forward. The government will partner with those groups that will deliver the best value for New Zealand taxpayers.

“The proposals of the three parties elected for negotiations as part of the first stage of the roll-out show significant promise and would deliver a strong first step in the roll-out of UFB.

“I look forward to receiving CFH’s recommendations on binding offers in October and to seeing the first deployments commencing before the end of the year.”

ENDS

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