CEO appointed to lead NZRFG charge

Media release
11 May 2010

The incoming CEO for the New Zealand Regional Fibre Group says it makes sense for the Government to capitalise on the growing fibre networks of its members – most of whom are regulated infrastructural specialists.

The group has today announced the appointment of Vaughan Baker to lead the organisation and he is confident the NZRFG can play a key role in the Government’s UFB initiative.

A number of NZRFG members are currently in negotiations with Crown Fibre Holdings in a bid to partner with the government to rollout ultra-fast fibre broadband.

Mr Baker’s appointment comes a year to the day since the group was formed to provide the Government with a highly credible option to build an open access national fibre to the door network to give New Zealanders a future-proof communications platform.

“The bulk of our membership is comprised of electricity lines companies. They have strong balance sheets and already operate very effective and critical infrastructure businesses in a regulated market, so they have a distinct advantage over other UFB participants if there is ever a level of regulation involved in the UFB initiative,” says Mr Baker.

“The NZRFG has grown quickly over the past year and now has broad coverage throughout New Zealand, along with collective strength and technical knowledge that delivers a strong national proposition. We started with ten members in April last year and now stand at 19. Three are specialist fibre companies but eight others are building fibre networks also and some have been involved in fibre for a long time - CityLink and Vector for over 10 years now.

“We are extremely well equipped to deploy fibre, especially when you consider how extensive our asset base is thanks to our lines networks. Like electricity, fibre networks are based on common architecture and infrastructure and those are our areas of expertise every day – they have been for decades. And because our members are dotted throughout the regions we have technical staff on the ground at all times to manage our networks.

“We have a huge existing customer base through a mix of electricity and fibre connections and our members have proven track records of deploying fibre networks simply and rapidly. This is long term infrastructure investment but let’s face it, the Government wants this build to happen quickly with high uptake so that New Zealand’s economy and productivity gets moving.”

Mr Baker says the NZRFG has achieved a number of milestones the past year, including Northpower’s first residential fibre to the door build and Electricity Ashburton’s 240km undergrounding project to connect farmers and town-based businesses. He also points to the completion of a three year expansion of the Velocity Network in Hamilton, connecting education, health and business sites and the culmination of a two year Auckland-wide fibre network expansion by Vector.

NZRFG members have also been active in expanding a number of fibre loops for schools and working with the National Education Network along the way.
“We said from day one that a nationally coordinated, regionally based fibre deployment model structured on transparent, open access principles is the way to go and that’s exactly what we offer. Of course the final model must stack up commercially but the lower the barriers to entry, the more competition there will be in all market segments and that will result in maximum customer choice and uptake,” says Mr Baker.
ENDS

Vaughan Baker – CEO Profile

Vaughan Baker has over 10 years experience in the ICT arena. Much of this time has been focused on commercial management and implementation of large scale IT and telecommunications outsourcing engagements. This has often involved comprehensive commercial and service management models to deliver targeted capability to end-users in a manner that best leverages the industry environment.

Initially trained as a lawyer, and with accounting qualifications, Mr Baker made his way into the ICT environment within the insurance industry leading commercial and benefit realisation programmes for tier #1 organisations – IAG and Fonterra included. More recently, through consultancy firm Voco he has been the Programme Manager for the NZ Regional Fibre Group, tasked with coordinating development of strategy, policy positions and supporting material for the members’ Ultra-Fast Broadband initiative submissions.

New Zealand Regional Fibre Group
www.nzrfg.co.nz

Editors Notes:
The NZRFG is a group of regional operators including lines companies and local fibre companies, which has come together to support the Government’s efforts to introduce ultra-fast broadband to New Zealand. Members include Alpine Energy, Aurora Energy, CityLink, Counties Power, Eastland Group, Electra, Electricity Ashburton, Enable Networks Ltd, Horizon Energy, Network Tasman, Network Waitaki, Northpower, PowerNet, Unison, Vector, Velocity, Waipa Networks, WEL Networks and Westpower.

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