Communications minister, Amy Adams, has announced that WEL Networks’ subsidiary, Waikato Networks, is taking full ownership of the local fibre company Ultrafast Fibre, previously jointly held with Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH), three and a half years earlier than expected.
She has hailed the move as “a testament to the success of the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative,” and said the deal would result in the Government getting back 95 percent of its original $198 million investment.
CFH’s contract with Waikato Networks had Waikato Networks making recycling payments, purchasing CFH’s A shares at face value in proportion to the connections made in each quarter up to 2020.
In a statement, the minister said: “The early exit transaction has Waikato Networks Limited making a payment to CFH in lieu of its remaining financial obligations. Although no longer a shareholder, CFH will maintain contractual oversight over products, network performance and customer connections until 2019.”
Ultrafast Fibre has deployed UFB past more than 190,000 homes, businesses and schools and around 11 percent of the population in Hamilton, Te Awamutu, Cambridge, Tauranga, Hawera, Tokoroa, New Plymouth and Whanganui. At the end of June more than 51,000 end users had been connected to the service