First the good news: Raglan is on the Government’s list to receive Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB). And now the not so good news: Raglan is timed for the first half of 2021. So there will be a four year wait for Raglanites before they can go ultrafast. The Raglan extension will be provided by Ultrafast Fibre Limited, a Hamilton company owned via Waikato Networks Ltd by Wel Networks and Waipa Networks.
Prime Minister Bill English and Communications Minister Simon Bridges today announced Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) will be extended to Raglan and 150 other towns, providing up to 85 per cent of New Zealanders with access to fibre by the end of 2024.
This second, $300 million phase of the Government’s UFB programme was launched in Amberley, north Canterbury, on Thursday morning.
Following intensive commercial negotiations, the Amberley event marked the awarding of contracts between Crown Fibre Holdings and four partner companies: Northpower, Ultrafast Fibre, Chorus and Enable.
“Phase two of the UFB build will see fibre rolled out across all mainland regions, to 151 more towns plus 43 suburban fringe areas around the larger centres which were covered by the first phase of the programme,” Mr Bridges says.
“This will provide around 423,000 additional New Zealanders in both rural and urban areas, from Ruatoria to Reefton, with access to world-class broadband.”
All towns identified in the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the UFB extension will receive access to fibre, plus additional areas that weren’t included in the RFP.
Ultra Fast Broadband Extension (UFB2)
The $210m funding is from a specific UFB2 appropriation together with a further $100m from the UFB1 funding. Work starts later in 2017 and will continue until the end of December 2024. By the end of 2024 another 423,000 New Zealanders will have access to UFB.
Rollout Timetable
Eighteen towns will have their UFB builds fast-tracked to be complete by the end of 2020. These are towns in Northland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu-Whanganui and the West Coast.
Pricing
It’s expected that retail prices in provincial towns will be similar to those in metropolitan areas. UFB wholesale product price caps and specifications are largely the same as for UFB1 until 31 December 2019, by which time the new Telecommunications Act regime is expected to be in place.