And the $5 million investment is all going underground.

 

By Christmas the company will have 120km of fibre laid around the south of Ashburton and as many as 400 local businesses and a handful of schools connected to the new ultra-fast fibre broadband network.

 

Most of the ducting on the 120km southern fibre line has been put in place and the fibre itself is being laid now.

 

Once complete, company network manager Brendon Quinn says the focus will then shift to a 120km stretch in the other direction, including Rakaia and Methven, with a planned completion deadline of March 2010.

 

Electricity Ashburton is one of the collective of regional lines and fibre companies – The New Zealand Regional Fibre Group – formed earlier this year to provide the Government with a regionally owned but nationally co-ordinated fibre solution for New Zealand.

 

The Government wants minimum connection speeds of 100Mbit/s in urban areas under its $1.5 billion ultra-fast fibre broadband initiative. It has called for expressions of interest and has set a January 29 deadline for submissions. The Government will select partners next year to begin spreading fibre throughout 33 downs and cities nationwide.

 

The NZRFG will be vying for the funding in the hope members like Electricity Ashburton are selected as preferred partners to ensure the process happens seamlessly at a regional level but with a national focus.

 

Mr Quinn says regional infrastructure companies like Electricity Ashburton are well placed quickly distribute fibre around New Zealand due to many decades of extensive experience deploying power networks and innate knowledge of the local community.

 

“If NZRFG bidders are selected it will be the start of a new competitive era because Telecom’s monopoly will be over. It is essential to start providing world leading communications infrastructure to this area and that’s what fibre is about,” says Mr Quinn.

 

There is plenty of backing for the new communications infrastructure from the Ashburton Economic Development Authority, Ashburton District Council and Federated Farmers.

 

Mr Quinn says early subscribers to the fibre network will have symmetrical (upload and download) speeds of 10Mbit/s for a similar price to a satellite connection. Those who want to pay a premium will access speeds of 100Mbit/s or 1Gbit/s and he says rural folk canvassed so far are “dead keen to be connected”.

 

“Once people move from the current broadband to fibre they won’t know themselves because it is just so fast. It transmits at the speed of light which makes the current broadband look like dial-up. A lot of businesses and farmers along the way are keen to be connected also, so we will do what we can to accommodate that demand.

 

“An ultra-fast fibre network is going to develop like electricity did last century and we can’t predict just what will evolve from it – but it will be hugely beneficial to our economy and community. Just look at what the internet alone has done for productivity the past 10 years. The impact of communicating through fibre will far exceed that.

 

“It will change the way we live, work and play. One thing it does allow is high definition and real time video conferencing, which means there are no delays and because fibre does not suffer from interference like copper does, people can work from anywhere, anytime. The performance of fibre is far superior to copper.”

 

Ideally Mr Quinn would like to connect all 23 schools in the region to ensure rural children have the same opportunities as their urban cousins through technologies such as remote learning through video conferencing.

 

“Mid Canterbury is a big dairying area with multi-million dollar businesses just about everywhere you look. From a business point of view, they would benefit immensely from fibre, so if we are laying fibre to urban areas then it makes sense to extend into the rural community when we have capacity. It will have huge economic and social benefits for rural communities like ours.

 

“Fibre could also open doors for doing business internationally. Mid-Canterbury is already is a global business hub. For example 75% of global carrot seed production is comes from this region.

 

“We are focussing heavily on laying fibre and I believe a 5-10 year time frame to have all of Mid Canterbury connected to a fibre network is not unreasonable. We believe that with government assistance, rolling out fibre is economically viable.”

 

Mr Quinn says because Electricity Ashburton is community owned, revenue generated goes back into the local areas.

 

“Until recently we had no unemployment in this area. We have a lot of migrant workers base themselves here and having fibre links to stay in contact with their friends and family would make a huge difference for them,” Mr Quinn says.

 

ENDS