One NZ to retire HFC (cable) network

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#3419823 29-Sep-2025 17:16

Yep, underground stuff won't be going anywhere, but if they do decide to remove anything it will be the aerial cables. Some of the cable bundles I've seen in Lower Hutt are quite large, which I suspect were one of the first. The later ones (in the eastern suburbs of Wellington and in Christchurch) were newer/thinner cables.

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#3419825 29-Sep-2025 17:27

freitasm:

One NZ was contacted for comment.

I'll be curious to see what they say -as someone else said earlier, they have invested quite a bit in their own network, but I heard replacement parts are a bit tricky to get for it these days.

I just went to their website and entered my old address in Wellington (that had cable installed years ago), it's still showing as a connection option there, along with fibre and wireless - so they haven't stopped offering it (yet).

yitz

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#3419826 29-Sep-2025 17:31

quickymart:

... I heard replacement parts are a bit tricky to get for it these days.

Because it's Huawei?

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#3419827 29-Sep-2025 17:32

Maybe, I dunno?

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#3419836 29-Sep-2025 18:45

Random slightly rambly thought, but I wonder if intensification via infill housing has made HFC less viable in some areas?

Using my street in Lower Hutt as an example, HFC is available via overhead line. Since its installation, there have been a significant number of infill town or free standing houses built especially over the last five years. Virtually all of these have under-grounded power / fibre and therefore have no way to connect HFC as its only overhead. I am aware some areas had underground HFC but for the purposes of the below I'm mainly thinking about the suburbs that didn't.

I live in a near new infill town house which is part of a 9 town house development in an area where existing properties still have overhead Power / Fibre / HFC. This development replaced 1 stand alone house. There are a two other similar size developments in my street alone which are all near new enough and fibre only.

This means just in my street, the HFC network has lost three potential connections and chorus fibre has gained a net ~24 (assuming eight extra townhouses average in each development).

There are several other similar developments in adjoining streets and a few very high density ones which replaced multiple stand alone houses. Assuming they've all been setup the same way, then multiple HFC connection points were likely lost there too.

This sort of intensification development has been happening all across Lower Hutt and the suburbs "encouraging" intensification all generally have HFC. This means there is potentially literally 100's less properties with HFC access now vs say 2020.

I don't believe Kapiti and Wellington City aren't seeing anywhere the same level of infill currently. I also can't really speak for the situation in Christchurch. But it may well they have (or are about to) hit a tipping point where the network is shrinking too much to remain viable. Especially noting that many people with HFC access have chosen to move to fibre anyway.

Could be totally wrong, but as far as I know there hasn't been any real HFC expansion in years - I used to live in one of the suburbs that never got it back in the day.

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#3419839 29-Sep-2025 18:56

Does everyone remember when TC said to govt to skip UFC in Wellington and Chch and recommend using HFC instead? What an absolute nightmare that would have been!

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#3419840 29-Sep-2025 18:56

This is a good point, I recall when I lived in a block of flats in 2001 that TelstraSaturn wouldn’t install cable because there was more than 3 units. Now we’re seeing blocks of town houses being built which are having Chorus Fibre preinstalled but no HFC option being installed

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#3419855 29-Sep-2025 19:50

Aucklandjafa:

Does everyone remember when TC said to govt to skip UFC in Wellington and Chch and recommend using HFC instead? What an absolute nightmare that would have been!

Yes. Yes I do.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/9798300/Scrap-UFB-rollout-says-Vodafone

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/30020945/Scrap-UFB-rollout-says-Vodafone

Imagine what would have happened now (assuming they are going to shut down the cable network) if this had actually gone ahead?

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#3419856 29-Sep-2025 19:51

DjShadow:

This is a good point, I recall when I lived in a block of flats in 2001 that TelstraSaturn wouldn’t install cable because there was more than 3 units. Now we’re seeing blocks of town houses being built which are having Chorus Fibre preinstalled but no HFC option being installed

Yes I remember multiple dwelling units being quite a pain for cable installation when I worked there. At the time I got a discounted cable connection and was looking at moving into an apartment block on The Terrace, but Telstra Saturn wouldn't even touch it as it was just too tricky to try and install cable into it. DSL was the only option; there was very little wireless around in that area (that I can recall) back in 2001.

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#3419873 29-Sep-2025 22:00

Just doing some digging tonight, I see that Bill Bennett touched on this exact topic not 4 years ago (back when it had only recently been renamed from being Fibre X)!

https://billbennett.co.nz/vodafone-fibrex/

It is telling that when Vodafone acquired TelstraClear and the HFC network, it did not decide to expand the network’s reach.

By 2012 the UFB fibre build had been running for two years. At the time HFC was already an old technology, superseded by fibre. The way Vodafone has boosted its performance since then borders on remarkable.

Vodafone has a problem. It costs money to run a network. The HFC network is matched by a more modern, government-subsidised open access rival that offers a wealth of competitive options.

The HFC network is never going to be a huge money-spinner. Yet it has one advantage. Vodafone owns it. There’s no wholesale access fee to pay, which cuts into Vodafone’s margins when it sells a UFB connection.

On the flip side, if Vodafone closes the network, it faces huge decommissioning costs that will run to tens of millions, if not higher. It makes business sense to keep the HFC network running for as long as it continues to break even and kick the decommissioning can down the road.

(Bolding mine). I know I knocked him in that other thread, but in this case he was right on the money and in fact ahead of the game too.

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#3419874 29-Sep-2025 22:01

DjShadow:

NZ Herald is paywalling this but here is a news piece from 2001 where Telecom was discounting Line Rental to match Saturn in Wellington and Christchurch: Telecom cuts line rentals in Wellington and Christchurch - NZ Herald

The Cable network def had its value over time IMO.

Here you go (it's a pretty short article):

"Telecom is dropping its monthly telephone line rentals for the first time in a decade - but only for Wellington and Christchurch customers.

The 18 per cent drop to $29.95 from $36.65 affects more than 500,000 of Telecom's 2.1 million customers.

Auckland, where Telecom has no competitor, misses out.

The move is designed to squeeze TelstraSaturn as the Australian rival sets up a state-of-the-art network in Christchurch and prepares to go live with part of it in about a month.

The $29.95 monthly rental matches TelstraSaturn's in Wellington, but the Australian competitor has not yet announced its pricing in Christchurch".

I worked at Saturn in the late 90's (the halcyon days of "The Glasshouse" on Petone Esplanade). Telecom first lowered prices in Lower Hutt and Kapiti in '99 as those were the only two areas that Saturn offered service to start with. People in Kapiti were still very keen to sign up to Saturn, who offered toll free calling to Wellington whereas at the time, calls from a Telecom line between Wgtn and Kapiti were tolled - or the subscriber had to buy an add-on (something something neighbouring area) for maybe $10 a month. But then Telecom started discounting that product to zero dollars as well. In some cases, Telecom's price matching was enough to stop people switching over (remembering that they HAD to change their phone number to do so), however as a door knocker paid on commission back in the day, it was a bonanza for a while as many people were still happy to switch to the company that brought in cheaper prices.

At that early stage, Saturn employees each got 2 x phone lines and 2 x cable tv boxes installed and free line rental on it all. My flatmate and I both worked there so we had 4 x phone lines and 4 x cable tv boxes at our house - just because we could. The joy of calling each other from our respective bedrooms never got old:

"Keen for a Macca's run?"

"Sure bro!"

"Sweet, meet you out front in 2!"

Of course this was back when calling each other on our prepaid Bellsouth mobiles cost $2 a minute and texting wasn't even a thing yet...

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

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#3419878 29-Sep-2025 22:14

Wheelbarrow01:

I worked at Saturn in the late 90's (the halcyon days of "The Glasshouse" on Petone Esplanade). Telecom first lowered prices in Lower Hutt and Kapiti in '99 as those were the only two areas that Saturn offered service to start with. People in Kapiti were still very keen to sign up to Saturn, who offered toll free calling to Wellington whereas at the time, calls from a Telecom line between Wgtn and Kapiti were tolled - or the subscriber had to buy an add-on (something something neighbouring area) for maybe $10 a month. But then Telecom started discounting that product to zero dollars as well. In some cases, Telecom's price matching was enough to stop people switching over (remembering that they HAD to change their phone number to do so), however as a door knocker paid on commission back in the day, it was a bonanza for a while as many people were still happy to switch to the company that brought in cheaper prices.

At that early stage, Saturn employees each got 2 x phone lines and 2 x cable tv boxes installed and free line rental on it all. My flatmate and I both worked there so we had 4 x phone lines and 4 x cable tv boxes at our house - just because we could. The joy of calling each other from our respective bedrooms never got old:

"Keen for a Macca's run?"

"Sure bro!"

"Sweet, meet you out front in 2!"

Of course this was back when calling each other on our prepaid Bellsouth mobiles cost $2 a minute and texting wasn't even a thing yet...

I remember those days!! I was there around then too (a long time ago). From memory the Telecom product you're thinking of was called "City Caller". They also offered it in North Canterbury and the outlying areas of Auckland, which were also toll calls to the respective main centres.

For a short time I lived in a place that had 1 phone line, 2 cable modems (my then-flatmate who also worked there was big on gaming) and 3 cable TV decoders - all for free (or cheap).

Looking back on it now, life was a lot simpler back then! 😀

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#3419888 30-Sep-2025 00:16

quickymart:

Just doing some digging tonight, I see that Bill Bennett touched on this exact topic not 4 years ago (back when it had only recently been renamed from being Fibre X)!

https://billbennett.co.nz/vodafone-fibrex/

It is telling that when Vodafone acquired TelstraClear and the HFC network, it did not decide to expand the network’s reach.

By 2012 the UFB fibre build had been running for two years. At the time HFC was already an old technology, superseded by fibre. The way Vodafone has boosted its performance since then borders on remarkable.

Vodafone has a problem. It costs money to run a network. The HFC network is matched by a more modern, government-subsidised open access rival that offers a wealth of competitive options.

The HFC network is never going to be a huge money-spinner. Yet it has one advantage. Vodafone owns it. There’s no wholesale access fee to pay, which cuts into Vodafone’s margins when it sells a UFB connection.

On the flip side, if Vodafone closes the network, it faces huge decommissioning costs that will run to tens of millions, if not higher. It makes business sense to keep the HFC network running for as long as it continues to break even and kick the decommissioning can down the road.

(Bolding mine). I know I knocked him in that other thread, but in this case he was right on the money and in fact ahead of the game too.

Vodafone has a long and sordid history of doing the bare minimum with acquisitions and integration of acquisitions. How many years was the excuse for anti-consumer behaviour “the billing system?”

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#3419889 30-Sep-2025 00:39

quickymart:

Yes. Yes I do.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/9798300/Scrap-UFB-rollout-says-Vodafone

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/30020945/Scrap-UFB-rollout-says-Vodafone

Imagine what would have happened now (assuming they are going to shut down the cable network) if this had actually gone ahead?

Just as well as then government told Vodafone they are dreaming because if there is one thing I know in my over 28 years working in this industry there is no large company which can be trusted in both retail and wholesale provision.

Breaking up Chorus and Telecom was the only reason the UFB worked.

I still have my old Telecom bill from 2003 with charges for a 1mbps frame relay circuit I had running into home in Henderson. Including 10Gb international traffic and ISP end ATM charges it must have come to around $1k a month. I recall it used G.SHDSL and was only marginally more reliable then ADSL1.

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#3419907 30-Sep-2025 07:27

yitz:

coffeebaron:

Maye they'll do a deal with Chorus and share costs removing coax and copper at same time :)

Chorus might have to buy Enable first in Christchurch...

why? Enable ran the fibre seperate to the copper ducts. Enable is ultimately owned by chch city council…yeh sure it might get sold off…but not without a premium price to return value to ratepayers.

the real question is “who’s gonna pay for removing all the aerial and underground HFC coax copper”. I do hope there is a calculation on removal costs for future projects that involve the poles and streetworks.

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