An equity provision should be part of the Ultra Fast Broadband rollout to ensure poor, urban communities aren’t last in line for faster broadband, says Russell Burt, principal of Pt England School in Auckland.
The advent of faster networks along with the popularity of consumer devices, is now emerging as a huge challenge for the IT department.
This could well be the year in which IT managers police the use of their IT, rather than promote it. With the desire among users for mobile, video and applications, the IT department will be expected to accommodate the latest must-have devices that staff bring into the workplace environment.
Rather than wait for Government decisions on the Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) and Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI), the Canterbury District Health (CDHB) Board is pushing ahead with new contracts for core telecommunication services.
Microsoft New Zealand national technology officer Mark Rees says the government has no vision as to how the Ultra Fast Broadband network will be used, and a strategy needs to be developed in order to maximise the benefits for the country.
Pacific Fibre, the company formed to build a second international fibre-optic cable connecting New Zealand and Australia to the US, has raised more than $5.5 million following its fourth funding round,
Pacific Fibre chief executive Mark Rushworth says this is development seed money, and is used for “scaling the team, resource and capability.” The company, which is based in Auckland and has an office in Sydney, has six staff and two further employees are set to join this month.
The total cost of the cable is expected to be $US 400 million and will be funded from a mix of debt and equity. Rushworth expects to put out a request for proposal to build the cable at the end of January, with a vendor selected by the beginning of the next financial quarter at the latest.
“Our intention was to have that (RFP) out prior to Christmas, but we decided we can wait until the end of January. We’ve got a new hire that is coming on board who has significant submarine cable deployment expereience and that expertise was worth waiting for,” he says.
Pacific Fibre has begun signing up customers, though Rushworth wouldn’t say who or how many, citing confidentiality agreement.However, he says approximately 80 percent are from Australia.
“Obviously the population's in Australia and our business case has always been based on the volume of the Australian market that's helping fund that cable. And it just happens to swing past and pick up four and a half million customers that are here and connect us up to the US.”
Last year, Pacific Fibre co-founder Rod Drury told Computerworld he'd like to see some New Zealand government funding because a purely commercial model would see demand heavily weighted in favour of Australian customers, and it’s likely the company would need to be registered outside of New Zealand, possibly in Bermuda. “It would become just another Southern Cross – that would be good for competition up to a point but you can see this as a bit of opportunity to step change our connectivity,” he told Computerworld.
But ICT Minister Steven Joyce appeared to rule government funding out and Rushworth confirmed today that Pacific Fibre remains a purely commercial venture.
However Rushworth says Pacific Fibre hasn’t closed the door to working with State Owned Enterprise Kordia, who were planning a trans-Tasman cable called Optikor.
“It would be a shame to have both cables built, because I would think one of them would have a very difficult case to get off the ground. But if they do it doesn’t impact us, because our business case is based on Australian volume up to the US.”
Meanwhile, the company is investigating possible landing sites in either Takapuna or Manukau in Auckland, in Sydney and two possible sites in Los Angeles. He says Pacific Fibre is on track to be operational by mid-2013, when New Zealanders will see a substantial improvement in their internet experience.
“Imagine an entry level fibre data plan that gives you say 100 or 200 GB of data a month, at the entry level and then going up to 500GB or 1TB, wouldn’t be beautiful?”
Pacific Fibre says all existing external investors contributed to this latest subscription round, as well as being joined by Peter Thiel’s New Zealand investment vehicle Valar Ventures LP.
Telecom Wholesale’s high-speed VDSL2 service will not be subject to regulation, the Commerce Commission announced today.
Following its success in making it to the next round in negotiations to participate in the government’s Ultra Fast Broadband network, Enable Networks has announced a deal with the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB).
The award-wining Telecommunications Disputes Resolution Scheme, which has shed several members since it began over two years ago, is under fire from consumer groups.
New Zealand has passed Australia in the latest OECD rankings for broadband penetration.
Crown Fibre Holdings, the government agency set up to pick the government’s partners in the ultra fast broadband network, intends to issue a request for proposal for technology suppliers on December 24.
Crown Fibre Holdings and the Telecommunication Users Association (TUANZ) have collaborated on a study of what business users are seeking from the ultra fast broadband network (UFB).
Rural and urban rollouts should not be separated when rolling out government subsidised broadband networks, says Alcatel-Lucent head of public affairs Gabrielle Gauthey.
On a windy Thursday evening five years ago, in the depths of a miserable Irish winter, Mia Fitzgerald took the phone call that would change her life.
An online software system for project management that enables multiple users to work on the same document at once, is attracting high-profile international clients.