Ultrafast broadband upsurge leads to other problems

See also: Chorus and RSPs blindsided by fibre uptake

A record upsurge in demand for ultrafast broadband connections since Christmas is exacerbating a shortage of technicians to do the work, say fibre companies.

At the release by the Telecommunications Forum of a report on the status of the industry, Chorus chief executive Mark Ratcliffe says the company had a record number of connections in January and February. Chorus  is responsible for most of the UFB roll-out nationwide and has had to boost its technician capacity by 30% in the past four months.

Four companies have been contracted by the government to meet its objective of rolling out UFB to 80% of the country by 2022.

Chorus [NZX: CNU] received more than 13,000 new fibre connection orders in January, the highest in one month, and it's completing an average 400 new connections a day.

"We need, collectively, twice as many technicians that we have working by the middle of the year, it's that kind of magnitude," Mr Ratcliffe says.

Christchurch fibre company Enable reports a similar upsurge in demand with connections doubling in the past three months.

Enable chief executive Steve Fuller says its projections had been for the demand to peak in 2018/19 but "we're now hitting that peak three years early,"

The roll-out has just passed the half-way mark with 550,000 customers having fibre laid past their homes and 100,000 customers now connected, Mr Ratcliffe says.

It takes about three months to train a technician, depending on their skill level, but also represents a $100,000 investment when the training, equipment, and van are taken into consideration, he says.

Spark New Zealand chief executive Simon Moutter says fibre is an easy sell at the moment but there needs to be more education for consumers on what will happen at their home with fibre installations. "There's lots of work to do to make sure we get the customer experience in the place it needs to be."

Chorus said it's taken a number of steps to improve that experience as the demand for fibre becomes mainstream. That's included increasing the number of installers, taking a bigger role in forecasting demand, and setting up a contact centre to confirm appointments following criticism over a high number of missed appointments.

Still, the increased demand and shortage of technicians to do the work has pushed out the time for some home connections.

While it only takes a day to do the actual work, Enable's waiting times have now moved out to 40 days from 30 days before Christmas.

Chorus says it's actually decreased the median time to connect a single dwelling from 37 days in October to 22 days, though that figure balloons out to 99 days for apartment blocks and 104 days for homes on a right of way, which both require consents.

Vodafone New Zealand chief executive Russell Stanners says consumers have unrealistic expectations around how quick the connection will be made, when they wouldn't expect other work around the home such as a bathroom renovation to be done "the day they think of it."

The industry report by the Sapere research group says investment in the telecommunications sector is $1.7 billion a year, proportionately one of the highest levels in the OECD.

The report says the sector is performing well above its international competitors in several ways, including the fastest fibre uptake in the developed world and one of the fastest 4G mobile download speeds globally.

A breakdown of annual sector investment shows $686 million went into fibre fixed access in 2014 compared to $665 million in 2013, while investment in the core network and backhaul, that connects the core to other sub-networks, rose to $694 million from $568 million in 2013.

(BusinessDesk)