One NZ to retire HFC (cable) network

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#3427781 24-Oct-2025 16:45

ajw:

@raytaylor

Do you think one.nz once they convert their mobile network to 5G stand alone are going to push fixed wireless access as they will have a lot more radio spectrum once GSM and 3G is shut down around Christmas. They want to shut down some HFC customers by 8 December this year. Obviously shut down in stages.

They will do their darndest to make sure they have 5G fixed capacity in each area as they close down the HFC network.

I suspect Chorus know its coming as they have been ramping up their "expect delays at peak time" ad campaign around Wellington recently... looking to try to tempt customers to UFB..

ajw

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#3427790 24-Oct-2025 17:14

Tmobile and Verizon wireless and less so at&t have put a serious dent in the earnings of the cable companies in the US due to aggressive marketing of Fixed line wireless.

yitz

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#3427794 24-Oct-2025 18:44

wellygary:

I suspect Chorus know its coming as they have been ramping up their "expect delays at peak time" ad campaign around Wellington recently... looking to try to tempt customers to UFB..

@ajw and @Newtown were only offered UFB fibre though?

yitz

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#3427795 24-Oct-2025 18:48

ajw:

Fixed line wireless.

Had me imaging some sort of wireline 5G standard... after all aren't antenna pigtail connectors just mini coax 😆 #convergence

ajw

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#3427837 25-Oct-2025 08:39

yitz:

ajw:

Fixed line wireless.

Had me imaging some sort of wireline 5G standard... after all aren't antenna pigtail connectors just mini coax 😆 #convergence

https://www.fierce-network.com/broadband/heres-whats-cards-cable-fiber-fwa-earnings

ajw

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#3427929 25-Oct-2025 16:49

https://www.telecoms.com/telecoms-infrastructure/increased-spending-on-fwa-signals-growth-in-key-markets

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quickymart

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#3427939 25-Oct-2025 18:29

I was going to say I don't think they would want to migrate former cable customers to a wireless solution, as I would hazard a guess it would saturate their cellsites, even the ones with 5G.

I imagine they will probably look to migrate them to fibre, as cable users use a reasonable amount of data, possibly too much for a fixed wireless connection.

richms

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#3427941 25-Oct-2025 18:44

quickymart:

I was going to say I don't think they would want to migrate former cable customers to a wireless solution, as I would hazard a guess it would saturate their cellsites, even the ones with 5G.

I imagine they will probably look to migrate them to fibre, as cable users use a reasonable amount of data, possibly too much for a fixed wireless connection.

I would assume that they would be looking at their usage profiles and only offering 5g internet to those who hardly use it at all.

Richard rich.ms

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#3427960 25-Oct-2025 21:03

I've apparently been living under a rock, because I only just now read this news/rumour. I'm actually quite disappointed to read it! I was on the HFC network about a decade ago, and on the notorious WKH node that was severely congested at that. I spent a lot of time ranting about the cable network congestion.

The service was dramatically improved after Vodafone made some upgrades and improved capacity. I imagine it's not even close to "congested" like it used to be, doubly so with some of the churn that they very likely saw.

As much as I loathed the FibreX branding (another thing I've complained about on GZ!) and was happy to see Vodafone get dealt a heavy fine for it, I still think that the service's absence will be a loss. ~~Vodaf~~One was able to provide some surprisingly good value, to the point that I'd occasionally recommend their HFC network in some use cases, especially where fibre installs were tricky or not feasible. Likewise, there's been a few times where I suggested that a preexisting cable connection was "good enough" for people that really didn't need higher speeds and weren't keen on the increased costs of alternative options.

I haven't personally touched this service in a long time, and some of my original experiences with it were awful, but it was a great offering in many places before fibre was available, and they continued to evolve it in a way that I think kept it fairly competitive.

quickymart

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#3427977 25-Oct-2025 22:14

Some good points (and I like your use of their new/old name, I'm going to steal it). I think what's happened is the maintenance costs on the network have become unsustainable, and I suspect that replacement parts when things break down may be getting hard to find as well.

Fibre has superseded cable, and I guess ~~Vodaf~~One finally want to get out of supporting a network that is quite old now.

ajw

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#3427992 26-Oct-2025 08:59

@quickymart

But could have been upgraded to the latest standard Docsis 4.0.

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quickymart

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#3427994 26-Oct-2025 09:25

This is true, but we'll never know now what could have happened if that had been done earlier in the piece. Possibly not a shutdown of the entire network.

MaxineN

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#3427995 26-Oct-2025 09:26

ajw:

@quickymart

But could have been upgraded to the latest standard Docsis 4.0.

Could, but at what cost?

Economically thinking, HFC in its current state is an expensive network at the margins they ran it at for years up until this point.

Why?

Overhead vs underground.

The contracts they would have had, have likely expired or are going to(this is beyond Downer, think about CMTS maintenance, DOCSIS modems and the software stack[that is ancient AF]).

The fact that like most businesses they're pivoting into AI, further 5G capacity and supporting existing products (e.g their UFB products, mobile, phones etc etc).

As I previously mentioned, I get the reasons (although not being said still), and I am still disappointed... But I get why.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.