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  "description": "Chorus fibre proposal endorsed as national infrastructure priority. It's time to update New Zealand’s National Environmental Standards for  Telecommunication Facilities. Spark working on price index system.\n",
  "path": "/download-weekly-chorus-rural-fibre-a-national-priority/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-06-26T19:54:04.000Z",
  "site": "https://billbennett.co.nz",
  "tags": [
    "rural",
    "naming an initial 49 communities and sites",
    "four times as many New Zealanders as Australians were already on 100 Mbps connections",
    "Crown Fibre Holdings, which oversaw the original UFB build, was rebranded as Crown Infrastructure Partners in 2017",
    "Unleashing the power of digital fibre infrastructure in New Zealand",
    "Waikato Networks increased its commitment to the UFB",
    "Independent service providers like Primo and Amuri among others have invested in their own networks",
    "Fibre for the other 13%",
    "the experience of Cyclone Gabrielle",
    "showed a 6.3% decline in telecoms costs in 2017",
    "Download Ericsson Mobility Report June 2025ericsson-mobility-report-june-2025.pdf7 MBdownload-circle",
    "Spark bags $47m after accepting low ball offer for Hutchison shares",
    "Tait Communications wants Vital to fast-track growth",
    "What's going on in NZ telecoms?"
  ],
  "textContent": "## Infrastructure Commission prioritises Chorus fibre extension\n\nChorus’ plan to extend the fibre network further into rural areas has made it on to the Infrastructure Priorities Programme. This is a list of projects that the Te Waihanga, the Infrastructure Commission, believes will further New Zealand’s strategic objectives.\n\nIt means official recognition that getting first class communications to rural New Zealand is a critical national issue. This marks a change in government thinking.\n\nWhen Cyclone Gabrielle hit in early 2023, it was clear that officials still considered communications less of a priority than power, water or roads.\n\n### Essential infrastructure\n\nYet it quickly became clear that the nation’s digital infrastructure is every bit as essential as other infrastructure. It underpins the economy.\n\nServices like education and healthcare struggle without it. Even shops find it difficult to operate when the data lines connecting terminals to banks are down. We’ve largely moved on from a cash-based economy.\n\nThis week the Infrastructure Commission announced its draft National Infrastructure Plan in Wellington. It includes Chorus’ proposal along with other projects.\n\n### 95 percent target\n\nChorus would like to extend the UFB fibre network which currently reaches about 87 percent of the country to around 95 percent coverage. The company has already laid the groundwork for this expansion, naming an initial 49 communities and sites for extension back in early 2024. This is broadly in line with what is happening in Europe and other advanced economies.\n\nNew Zealand has consistently outpaced its neighbour in this regard; as far back as 2019, four times as many New Zealanders as Australians were already on 100 Mbps connections, a lead that has only grown as the UFB rollout matured. S\n\nSome countries aim to go further, Spain is shooting for 99 percent. Yet for New Zealand conditions, 95 percent is a sensible cut off point. Beyond that, connecting each extra premise becomes prohibitively expensive\n\nEstimates vary, but extending the network could cost between $2 and $3 billion. Chorus is willing to finance some of this, but new sources of funding are needed. This can include public-private partnerships and creative thinking is called for.\n\nThe public-private partnership model has proven successful before. Crown Fibre Holdings, which oversaw the original UFB build, was rebranded as Crown Infrastructure Partners in 2017 specifically to extend this proven model to other infrastructure projects beyond telecommunications.\n\n### $17 billion in benefits\n\nTo put the cost in perspective, two years ago an NZIER report found extending fibre could deliver around $17 billion in benefits. From a government point of view, this makes fibre a far better investment than roads. Deloitte's Unleashing the power of digital fibre infrastructure in New Zealand__ makes another strong case for more fibre investment.\n\nGovernment planners use Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) to compare the economic viability of infrastructure investments. Fibre has a BCR of around 5 or 6. That is, for every dollar invested, you get six back. Some proposed road projects have a BCR below 1 and none come close to fibre.\n\nInfrastructure projects have a nasty habit of running over time or over budget. Recent high profile road projects have done both. In comparison, the UFB fibre network build has been one of the most successful infrastructure projects of modern times. It came in on time and on budget.\n\n### High uptake\n\nWhen the UFB plans were first drawn up almost 20 years ago, the government thought somewhere between one in five and one in four homes might connect to the network. Today about four out of five homes able to connect are using it. There’s some evidence that uptake is higher in rural areas than in the main centres.\n\nThe success of the UFB model relied on more than just government funding; it required regional partners to take significant commercial risks. We saw this maturity develop mid-way through the build, notably when Waikato Networks increased its commitment to the UFB, providing a vital signal of private sector confidence that helped carry the project to completion\n\nChorus CEO Mark Aue says if there’s solid government backing, there’s nothing to stop his company from starting the build almost immediately.\n\nThere are numerous existing small scale fibre networks in a handful of rural areas. Independent service providers like Primo and Amuri among others have invested in their own networks. Yet large areas of the country and many people remain off the fibre map.\n\nOne byproduct of the Infrastructure Commission process is that it uncovered that New Zealand doesn’t have a rural communications strategy. Aue says: “Our proposal was marked down for not aligning with a strategy that doesn’t exist.” He wants the government to fix that, develop a strategy and make sure it is integrated into national planning.\n\n💡\n\nSee Fibre for the other 13% from 2022.\n\n* * *\n\n## Facilities standards to get long overdue revision\n\nNew Zealand’s National Environmental Standards for Telecommunication Facilities (NESTF) are critical to the nation’s networks.\n\nNESTF are a set of rules that allow engineers to install telecommunications cabinets, antennae and masts without needing individual resource consent.\n\nThe rules were first introduced in 2008 under the Resource Management Act. In 2016, updated regulations were drafted and they came into force in 2017.\n\n### Missed updates\n\nTelecommunications Forum CEO Paul Brislen explains that the plan was to update NESTF every three years. But that didn’t happen.\n\nThe rules were first introduced in 2016 to streamline telco infrastructure deployment, but Brislen says the NESTF overhaul is now well overdue.\n\nThe 2020 update was derailed by the Covid pandemic. The next revision was cancelled because the then-Labour government was in the process of replacing the Resource Management Act.\n\nBrislen says the NESTF overhaul is long overdue.\n\n### Higher towers, bigger cabinets\n\nThe original rules allowed mobile towers up to a certain height, but those limits are no longer sufficient.\n\nBrislen says the past decade has seen higher buildings go up in New Zealand’s cities and towns. These interfere with mobile signals which means more towers are needed to cover the same area. That’s something that comes at a high cost and is not popular with the public.\n\nBrislen says: “The standard needs to allow for taller towers.”\n\n### Gabrielle showed need for new rules\n\nAt the same time, existing rules limit the size of roadside cabinets. Cabinet size wasn’t seen as an issue in 2016. That was before the experience of Cyclone Gabrielle and other natural disasters.\n\n“You can't have more batteries or more cooling systems in place in a cabinet because the footprint is too small”, says Brislen. Which means the rules need to allow larger cabinets.\n\nNESTF rules are automatically applied to all councils throughout New Zealand. This standardisation greatly simplifies matters for network engineers who know an installation in one location can be used across the nation.\n\n* * *\n\n## Sign up for Bill Bennett\n\ntelecommunications + technology from a New Zealand perspective\n\nSubscribe\n\nEmail sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.\n\nNo spam. Unsubscribe anytime.\n\n## Stats and Spark working on price index system\n\nSpark is working with Stats NZ on a project to build a better system for producing New Zealand's price indices. The telecommunications sector has historically been tracked through the quarterly CPI, which showed a 6.3% decline in telecoms costs in 2017. That one of the sharpest drops among major consumer categories that year.\n\nGovernment has asked Stats NZ to produce a monthly Consumer Price Index from the start of 2027. Unlike many other economies, New Zealand currently produces a quarterly CPI.\n\nMark Beder, Spark’s customer director for enterprise and government, says the new system is being developed with the flexibility that will allow it to handle other data and produce other statistical outputs in future.\n\n* * *\n\n## Ericsson: World moving to speed-based 5G FWA plans\n\nIn its June 2025 Mobility Report Ericsson says more than half the carriers it surveyed around the world now offer speed-based plans for 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services.\n\nIn New Zealand, fibre plans are typically based on speed tiers and some Mobile Virtual Network Operators divide up their offerings by speed, but, so far, fixed wireless broadband plans have not been sold that way.\n\nElsewhere in the report Ericsson says by the end of this year there will be 2.9 billion 5G subscriptions. That’s about a third of all mobile subscriptions.\n\nDownload Ericsson Mobility Report June 2025ericsson-mobility-report-june-2025.pdf7 MBdownload-circle\n\n* * *\n\n## In other news...\n\nSpark bags $47m after accepting low ball offer for Hutchison shares\nAt the NZ Herald Chris Keall writes about Spark's payday and the investor who says the telco could have got a better deal.\n\nTait Communications wants Vital to fast-track growth\nYou’ll need a BusinessDesk subscription to read this Gregor Thompson story looking at the strategic thinking behind Tait’s takeover plan.\n\nWhat's going on in NZ telecoms?\nHear me on RNZ Nine to Noon, where I talk about the possible fibre network extension and the current state of the NZ telecoms market.\n\n****The Download Weekly is supported by Chorus New Zealand.****",
  "title": "Chorus rural fibre a national priority",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-12T08:12:29.601Z"
}