Joyce: 'Soon come'
This minister goes Jamaican.
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Hawke’s Bay
A few weeks ago, at the Telcon11 conference in Auckland (on April 7, to be exact), Communications Minister Steven Joyce said that the final Crown fibre contracts would be signed "in a few weeks."
At the Tuanz Telecommunications Day conference in Wellington today - that is, a few weeks later - NBR asked when UFB negotiations would be wrapped up.
Mr Joyce said it would not be this week, then added, "soon come." Pressed for more detail, the minister repeated "soon come."
According to the interwebs, "soon come" is a phrase sometimes employd by Jamaicans when they want to evade giving a specific deadline for, say, returning home from a bar.
The joke many annoy some in the telecommunications industry, many of whom have been waiting months for the Crown fibre process to reach some kind of conclusion. But I suspect - especially now the 10-year regulatory holiday issue has been neutralised - that the Great New Zealand Public won't be that fussed whether a decision comes now, or later.
In today's budget, the balance of oustanding funds ($942 million) for the UFB project was allocated, providing another indication that a decision could be close. Or not.
Here's how the contract stakes stand right now (click to zoom):
* Ultrafast Fibre consortium consist of Wel Networks, Velocity, Waipa Networks, Hamilton Fibre Network
** Central Fibre Consortium consists of Unison Networks, Counties Power, Eastland Group, Horizon Energy Distribution and Central Lines
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Joyce: 'Soon come'
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