12% of those within reach now connecting to UFB fibre

Although still miserable, UFB uptake rates are edging up.

By the end of the December quarter, UFB fibre had been rolled passed more than 570,221 premises with 69,301 (or 12.15%) of those customers choosing to take a UFB plan, Communications Minister Amy Adams says.

The September quarter report had 536,000 customers within reach of the UFB, with 55,000 or 10.26% had connected. Since this time last year, customer connections have doubled.

The UFB rollout, backed by $1.35 billion from the taxpayer, is now 43% complete (by the end of 2019 1.34 million premises will be in reach).

Auckland, Wellington lag
While the rollout has been completed in a number of areas, Auckland (one of Chorus' UFB areas) remains a notable laggard with just 27% of the targetted premises currently within reach of fibre. Wellington (also Chorus) trails the pack as well.

Chorus has complained about three-month delays for customers in right-of-ways and other non-standard installations. However, the government's enthusiasm for reforming the RMA has not extended to making UFB instals a designated service (meaning Chorus and the three UFB companies would not have to seek permission for each instal).

While cloud computing and remote work are often sited as reasons for better broadband infrastructure, some punidts also see video streaming as a killer app. If so, expect more uptake given recent developments such as Spark making its Lightbox service free to its 600,000 residential broadband customers, and the pending launch of Netflix NZ and Sky TV's Neon.

“In December, Oamaru became the third town to be fully fibred, alongside Whangarei and Te Awamutu, with more towns expected to be completed in the coming months,” Ms Adams says.

“A total of 2,285 schools now have fibre ready for service.  The fibre roll-out to state and state-integrated schools across New Zealand is due for completion over the coming year.”

Under the RBI, Vodafone has 104 new towers now ready for service, making the new tower build over two-thirds complete. More than three-quarters of the RBI tower upgrades are now complete, with 305 towers upgraded. An estimated 231,000 addresses are able to connect to fixed wireless RBI from the new and upgraded towers.

The $200 million Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) towers are now making a significant contribution to mobile coverage, Ms Adams says.  In the last quarter, more than 1.5 million individual Vodafone customers accessed mobile services from the 104 new towers built since the start of the programme.

More than 81,000 lines have been upgraded by Chorus under the RBI to receive faster copper-based broadband. 

During the election campaign, National promised to allocate $150 million to $210 million more for the UFB, a $100 million top up for the RBI and $50 million to fill mobile coverage gaps in remote areas. The new fundiing is contestable. The government has yet to detail the process for its allocation.