Chorus says RMA fix needed as fibre rollout stumbles on shared driveways, multi-unit homes

See also: $360m broadband top-up: Adams confirms smaller players are in the running

Chorus [NZX: CNU], the regulated telecommunications network operator, has called on the government to enact changes to the Resource Management Act to speed fibre rollout to multi-unit properties and those with shared driveways. Rollout to these properties usually takes six times longer than for stand-alone homes.

The median time to complete a fibre installation in a simple property, such as a stand-alone house, representing 80-85% of builds, is 18 days, chief executive Mark Ratcliffe told a briefing in Wellington today. More problematic were more complex builds, with multi-dwelling unit installations taking a median 130 calendar days and a property down a shared right-of-way taking 110 days.

Mr Ratcliffe says the major delays caused in the consenting process came from Chorus having to find neighbours to confirm they didn't object to the build or from disputes between neighbours or third parties.

"The best role the government can play is helping with the consenting stuff – that's the one thing the industry can't sort out on its own," he says. "We've got a pool of properties where consents have been refused and, the way that those work at the moment, we don't get back to those for another six months – otherwise there is just more cost involved."

The government has been planning changes to the Resource Management Act, saying it wants to strip out unnecessary added costs in building houses and speed up infrastructure construction. Changes to the law may be watered down after National lost the Northland by-election and the one-seat majority for the government it leads.

"Our understanding is that officials are considering options for improvements to the consenting regime there," Mr Ratcliffe said. "There is universal industry support for both the issue and the solution, and we think it's reasonably politically non-contentious to do that but it does require a piece of legislation to improve that consenting," he said. "We're hopeful that will find a way through."

Meanwhile, Chorus was working with the three biggest retail service providers – Spark New Zealand, Vodafone New Zealand and CallPlus – to ensure there aren't any industry bottlenecks that would slow the rollout of the ultrafast broadband network, he said.

"We're going to take responsibility for bringing the industry together to create more consistent criteria for great customer experience end-to-end, and get better definition of the respective roles of each of the parties within that process, because there is some ambiguity," Mr Ratcliffe said.

Chorus has spent $50 million to upgrade a new ordering system, to which RSPs will be able to connect their own IT systems, to improve the sharing of information.

Government figures this month showed UFB uptake to be at about 13.8% across the country, with 85,544 end-users connected to the network, of the 618,000 able to use the fibre lines.

Ratcliffe today said that uptake had exceeded most people's expectations, with the recent introduction of Netflix's streaming video services helping underpin some of that growth. Although there has been reports of congestion slowing down internet service on Chorus's copper network during peak usage times, Mr Ratcliffe said the fibre network was unaffected.

Chorus shares fell 0.6% to $3.15 and have gained 19% this year.

(BusinessDesk)