One year and a thousand high speed broadband cabinets to go

Chorus is heading into the final stretch of its programme to bring fibre optic cables closer to more New Zealand homes.

With less than 12 months to go, local telecommunications network operator, Chorus, is getting closer to completing the rollout of 2,500km of fibre optic cable and 3,600 roadside cabinets to rev up broadband speeds to at least 10Mbps for more than 80 percent of New Zealanders.

Chorus Acting CEO Ewen Powell said that without question this programme has been one of the largest and most successful broadband network upgrades the country has ever seen.

"Over the past three years New Zealand's broadband reach and performance has been steadily improving while we've been humming along extending fibre further into local neighbourhoods."

"Taupo, Greymouth, Gore and Whangarei are among the first areas to be completed with many others about to cross the finish line and be within reach of high speed broadband." he said.

Mr Powell said that by deploying fibre and moving the broadband equipment closer to homes, Chorus' work makes it possible for even faster speeds in the future through VDSL2 and fibre to the home technology.

"Service providers are already installing broadband equipment which can deliver speeds of up to 50Mbps for customers within about one kilometre of our cabinets,"

"Around half the homes connected to our cabinets are within five hundred metres of our fibre optic cable network and ninety percent within one kilometre, giving us a head start in our journey to a fibre future." he said.

About 800 people from a range of organisations have been involved in the project across the country. Christchurch manufacturers Shape Technology and Eaton Electrical have played a pivotal role, helping establish a manufacturing production line that produces an average of 25 cabinets a week.

Chorus began its national programme in Auckland's Point Chevalier in March 2008 and, combined with the upgrade of broadband equipment in telephone exchanges, aims to enable broadband speeds of at least 10Mbps for 80 percent of New Zealanders by the end of 2011.

As part of a Chorus' work to make sure the cabinets become part of the landscape, local artists have been recruited to use selected roadside cabinets as canvasses and weave designs that incorporate natural flora and birds of Aotearoa to catch the eye.

As well as taking fibre deeper into suburbs, Chorus' project is taking fibre to new towns including Te Anau, Akaroa, Gisborne and Westport. Chorus also regularly deploys fibre direct to business premises, as well as homes in new subdivisions. In the last year it added several thousand kilometres of fibre to the wider Telecom network, taking the total amount of fibre in the network to 26,000km.

Fibre-fed cabinet rollout progress by region:

Auckland 69%
Bay of Plenty 72%
Canterbury 70%
Gisborne 10%
Hawke's Bay 84%
Manawatu 74%
Marlborough 87%
Nelson 73%
Northland 87%
Otago 66%
Southland 75%
Taranaki 68%
Tasman 78%
Waikato 67%
Wellington 69%
Westland 100%

Fibre-fed cabinet facts:

- Chorus has been upgrading cabinets across more than 20 centres around New Zealand.
- Taupo and Greymouth were the first towns to have their broadband upgrades completed
- About 750,000 customers will be connected to Chorus' cabinets by the end of 2011
- Each cabinet will generally service up to 300 customers
- The cabinet body is made of 240kg of marine grade aluminium
- Cabinets are coated in a special paint to facilitate graffiti removal
- They contain battery back-up power supply as well as a generator connection in case of power-cuts
- At full load a cabinet uses 1200 watts, the same power as a one-bar heater
- They are designed to limit noise to about 30 decibels, just above the level of a whisper
- 650 key parts in each cabinet (1,150 including fastenings)
- 2 tonnes of concrete per cabinet base