Ultra-fast broadband soon coming your way

Northpower's Warren Moyes ... heads a community companydelivering ultra-fast broadband through fibre on existing pole networks. PHOTO: Steve Macmillan

11-01-2010 | Hugh Stringleman

Ultra high-speed fibre to the door, in rural areas as well as urban, is very important for the development of New Zealand, says Northpower chairman and Ruatangata deer farmer Warren Moyes.

An embodiment of his ambition for all rural Kiwis, Moyes farms 20kms from his company headquarters in Whangarei. Without broadband he would have to be in Northpower's offices the equivalent of two days a week, he says.

But like many country people who have broadband, he is constrained by Telecom's ADSL delivered on copper wire, while those further away from telephone exchanges, of course, cannot even get that.

His company is already rolling out fibre alongside of the power lines, capable of delivering and receiving 100Mbits/sec to the home or farm, a speed which makes ADSL look like horse power compared with jet power.

Moyes has been 18 years as chairman of the board of Northpower, the community-owned Northland power distribution and maintenance company. It is now one of the largest in the country, with 900 employees in NZ, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Under Moyes' chairmanship Northpower made two far-reaching strategic decisions; to build reticulation maintenance capacity when like companies were outsourcing and shrinking, and to proactively introduce fibre optics alongside its power network.

Northpower has already spent $3 million on fibre cable throughout Whangarei city and has extended the connection along SH 14 towards Dargaville.

It expects to spend $30m over five years extending its fibre network over most of its 52,000 customers.

After a year of exclusivity with Telstra Clear, Northpower is about to open its fibre network to any provider.

Northland was the first region of the country to install ethernet passive optical network (EPON) technology from the US.

This is cost-effective fibre optics run from poles and through ducts in parallel with power lines and cable, but without any electrical interference, particularly from electric fencing.

The fibre transmits both ways at ultra-fast speeds, utilising several wavelengths and flashing rates over one billion times a second.

The fibre network completely by-passes Telecom's exchanges, cabinets, ADSL broadband and copper wire. It goes right to the business premises or homes and is not much restricted by distance or cost.

For example, fibre cables can run 20kms from Northpower sub-stations at 1Gbits/sec capacity before a passive optical splitter delivers 32 individual connections with 100Mbits/sec on fibre lines not much thicker than cotton.

This technology, or similar, will be the capillaries of the national fibre network, on which the Government has pledged $1.5 billion to drastically improve the country's communications infrastructure and put it on a level footing with other developed nations.

Some 20 lines and fibre companies have banded together as the NZ Regional Fibre Group (NZRFG), which will put a proposal before the Government at the end of January.

The intention of the NZRFG is to work with the Government to provide a regionally focussed but nationally co-ordinated and consistent communications platform that supports the delivery of ultra-fast broadband services.

Moyes commented that the construction of a national fibre network would be as revolutionary as the introduction of reticulated electricity more than a century ago.

The benefits will extend far into the countryside.

"When you live in a rural area you often don't have access to the types of services of townsfolk and I know how frustrating that can be. So having experienced how quick fibre is, I can see how beneficial it could be to farmers.

"It would save a huge amount of time and they could actually research products online which most of them can't do because of dial-up connections.

"They can't afford to spend hours at a time in front of a computer when there is work to do on the farm. The same applies to other rural-based businesses too," Moyes said.

"Copper wire really is a stranded asset and cabinetisation is not the answer. It is so bad for the rural community lagging behind everyone else.

"The Government is proposing broadband speeds of 100Mbit/sec for urban New Zealand and rural schools but only 5-10Mbit for most rural landowners which would mean the rural sector is left behind somewhat.

"Now I realise there are physical and economic practicalities, but it makes no sense for a panel beater on the city fringe to have ultra-fast fibre broadband, while farmers 30 minutes away running multi-million dollar businesses, have little more than dial-up when they are the ones who need all the efficiencies they can get.

"If ultra-fast broadband is to go to rural schools and townships, let us take it to the surrounding rural communities.

"And that is what the NZRFG is saying to the Government. The rural broadband initiative is a great start but my thinking is let us take it a step further and, where possible, extend that reach."

During its pioneering work in fibre reticulation, Northpower has encountered farmers who seek to be paid for the additional fibre lines on existing power poles on private land.

Simple maths shows such demands would quickly exhaust the available public or corporate funds available for fibre roll-out.

Encouraged by Federated Farmers, individual farmers who have power lines crossing their properties could therefore be blocking the access of all rural people and some rural communities to the ultra-fast fibre future.

They need to look to the greater national good and allow fibre to be strung on existing poles, Northpower's chairman Moyes believes.

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