Enable has completed its fibre broadband network roll-out to more than 200,000 homes, businesses and schools across greater Christchurch 19 months ahead of schedule. To celebrate this significant achievement, Enable is doubling the speed of its most popular wholesale residential broadband service and providing this to retailers at no extra cost.
"We are immensely proud to say to our greater Christchurch community that we have completed our network roll-out to every home and business in our coverage area, and that everyone can now connect to our world-class fibre broadband services,” said Enable Chief Executive, Steve Fuller.
Enable began its enormous infrastructure project on 8 November 2011 in Halswell with a completion date set for 31 December 2019.
“We installed the last piece of our network in a street at the top of Mount Pleasant – meaning we have completed the project 19 months ahead of schedule. This includes building to more areas than were initially planned when we began,” said Mr Fuller.
Enable partnered with the Government in the national Ultra-Fast Broadband initiative to provide fibre broadband services to Christchurch, Rangiora, Kaiapoi, Woodend, Rolleston, Lincoln, Templeton and Prebbleton. Enable subsequently agreed to extend the network to include Kennedys Bush, Ohoka, Tuahiwi, Clearwater, Tai Tapu and more areas on the fringe of Christchurch all of which are also completed.
“Our network is more than five times the length of New Zealand. That’s more than nine million metres of ducting installed under our footpaths and roads right across the greater Christchurch area. It is fair to say that the construction of the network was an enormous challenge in a city that was devasted by earthquakes. The Alliance partnership formed between Enable and Broadspectrum brought innovation to the way the network was built. It is this Alliance and innovation that was instrumental to delivery of the network 19 months early.
“Also, we’ve collaborated closely with our Government partner –Crown Infrastructure Partners, Christchurch City Holdings Limited and the City Council – our shareholder, other local councils and many infrastructure contracting companies to achieve what we have. We thank all of them for their support.
“Most importantly we thank the Christchurch community for their patience and tolerance while we built the network, we tried our very best to cause the least disruption,” said Mr Fuller.
Today, there are over 74,000 customers connected to fibre broadband services, enjoying unlimited opportunities – with this number having increased by 24,000 in the last 11 months with approximately 135 customers connecting every day recently.
“We are doubling the speed of our 100 Mbps residential wholesale service to our retailers at no extra cost so many residential customers will enjoy 200 Mbps download speeds, as our way of saying thank you.”This offer will be available on new orders from 1 July 2018 and Enable will work with its retail service providers to ensure as many existing customers as possible are reaping the benefits of the upgraded speed by Christmas.
“We will remain focused on connecting thousands more customers to our network over the coming few years to ensure they can enjoy the many opportunities an ultra-fast, super-reliable fibre broadband internet experience in their homes or businesses will bring,” said Mr Fuller.
“We are also turning our attention to further supporting our community, as a company focused solely on greater Christchurch, to realise the potential of our connectivity in a way that will help Christchurch become a truly 21st century city.
“We have recently announced plans to upgrade all schools in Christchurch to Gigabit speeds and are looking at our role in closing the digital divide within our community. We have partnered with the Council on a city wi-fi trial and continue to work with the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce to help business embrace and benefit from digital technology.”
Photo credit: "yellow fiber optics cable close up shot by yurok/Bigstock"
