Chorus planning to abandon all copper in 10 years

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Chorus planning to abandon all copper in 10 years

coffeebaron

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#304594 18-May-2023 11:57

From Stuff article

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/132073093/chorus-to-completely-axe-copper-services-within-10-years

So looks like the days of copper everywhere are number for good. Will be interesting to see how far they run fibre into rural areas.

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#3077473 18-May-2023 12:04

Interesting. We'll be building on our rural property. I thought fibre was available, but it isn't. The way Chorus provide info now, for addresses not currently served by fibre infrastructure, they say "available on request".

There is copper available, but we won't bother with a connection. We'll just get Starlink or similar.

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Lias

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#3077477 18-May-2023 12:17

In related news Chorus is asking for another $500 million to extend UFB to 90% of homes and reckons 95% should be the govts aspirational goal.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/chorus-willing-to-chip-in-for-better-rural-broadband-if-the-govt-does-too/6CGAEHYNXNBF3CSSH5NS77RXB4/ (Paywalled use bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean)

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Tockly

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#3077479 18-May-2023 12:25

Won't hold my breath we'll see fibre in my area, given there's not even any copper I can use. Mostly get redirected to 4G/5G or wireless when I ask. So I went with Starlink.

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#3077480 18-May-2023 12:27

Tockly:

Won't hold my breath we'll see fibre in my area, given there's not even any copper I can use. Mostly get redirected to 4G/5G or wireless when I ask. So I went with Starlink.

If you don't even have copper now I suspect you are in the "5%" that even under the aspirational goal isn't getting wired services.

evilengineer

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#3077488 18-May-2023 12:53

Lias:

In related news Chorus is asking for another $500 million to extend UFB to 90% of homes and reckons 95% should be the govts aspirational goal.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/chorus-willing-to-chip-in-for-better-rural-broadband-if-the-govt-does-too/6CGAEHYNXNBF3CSSH5NS77RXB4/ (Paywalled use bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean)

They've been saying that for a while. Definitely time for a UFB3, though.

quickymart

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#3077540 18-May-2023 13:44

Wouldn't reach to everywhere however (IMO). 100% fibre would be absolutely fantastic but simply not feasible.

Maybe one day if fibre did have 100% reach, the LFC's could do a custom install of (suggested price) of $500 or something, that might make some people more interested in getting fibre installed.

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#3077541 18-May-2023 13:49

@coffeebarron

Quote for fibre at Whitford came in at 375K plus incidentals for the 4 houses.....

and that's not necessarily a "tricky" site

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#3077557 18-May-2023 15:11

Give them the $500 Million get fibre everywhere.

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coffeebaron

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#3077647 18-May-2023 20:10

hsvhel:

@coffeebarron

Quote for fibre at Whitford came in at 375K plus incidentals for the 4 houses.....

and that's not necessarily a "tricky" site

I think there will be places like Whitford where there is reasonable urban sprawl that will get fibre within the next 10 years.

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DS248

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#3077671 18-May-2023 22:30

Does anyone know what percentage of the population currently does not have access to

(a) to copper (presumably a very small %)

(b) to at least VDSL?

We currently have a fairly lousy VDSL connection that I have kept paying for but not used for the last 5 months. Kept paying for it as the 'replacement' Spark 4G service is a bit hit and miss and my attempts to fix the problems with Spark support team have (a) achieved nothing, and (b) have been a bit of a nightmare in terms of contacting them (at times, multi-hours waits). Annoying part is that we located only half a km in direct line of site from the 4G tower, with excellent signal strength. Average DL speed over multiple tests is OK (> 60 Mbps) but much of the time, the connection is constantly dropping out for short periods. Last we checked Neon and Disney+ were basically unwatchable.

The cost of keeping paying for the unused 'just in case' VDSL service is starting to mount up but I still do not have confidence that the current Spark 4G service is fit for purpose.

So, a bit concerned at the thought of copper being abandoned without having access to fibre.

Would love to know if we are within the 90% coverage they are aiming to achieve. FWIW, we are just outside the Auckland metro urban area boundary, not out in the backblocks.

DS248

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#3077672 18-May-2023 22:56

hsvhel:

@coffeebarron

Quote for fibre at Whitford came in at 375K plus incidentals for the 4 houses.....

and that's not necessarily a "tricky" site

There should be a process to allow challenges to their costings / designs. We got an estimate of $50k to connect to our property despite there being spare fibre at the roadside connection point (connection to a cell tower from the same location).

Annoying part is they priced on a nonsense 510 m cabling route, almost double the length it should have been. To make matters worse, much of their design route is over a neighbouring property we don't have easement over, whereas the more direct route (up our vehicle access driveway), we do have an easement over. I think part of the problem is our driveway doesn't show in Google maps whereas the longer route they chose does. I sent a response back (via farmside) explaining the situation asking if I could it requoted for the correct route. That was over 9 months ago, with nil response to date (& I'm not holding my breath).

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paulgr

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#3077739 19-May-2023 07:35

DS248:

I think part of the problem is our driveway doesn't show in Google maps whereas the longer route they chose does.

Chorus used Google maps to tell me I had a shared driveway when they are side by side on different levels divided by a retaining wall.
Obviously Google knows more than those who live on the property.

quickymart

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#3077741 19-May-2023 07:43

DS248:

hsvhel:

@coffeebarron

Quote for fibre at Whitford came in at 375K plus incidentals for the 4 houses.....

and that's not necessarily a "tricky" site

There should be a process to allow challenges to their costings / designs. We got an estimate of $50k to connect to our property despite there being spare fibre at the roadside connection point (connection to a cell tower from the same location).

Annoying part is they priced on a nonsense 510 m cabling route, almost double the length it should have been. To make matters worse, much of their design route is over a neighbouring property we don't have easement over, whereas the more direct route (up our vehicle access driveway), we do have an easement over. I think part of the problem is our driveway doesn't show in Google maps whereas the longer route they chose does. I sent a response back (via farmside) explaining the situation asking if I could it requoted for the correct route. That was over 9 months ago, with nil response to date (& I'm not holding my breath).

You don't know where the nearest connection point is to your property though - it could indeed be 510m away.

hsvhel

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#3077756 19-May-2023 09:05

I know exactly where it is - it's less than 65m

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Klathman

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#3077757 19-May-2023 09:08

I think it would be interesting if they looked at providing fibre to the roadside where copper is provided, which would then mean that new installs weren't also financing the infrastructure at the exchanges, and the runs will only be from the roadside to the house.

I imagine this would then be the equivalent of the costs that happened to install power back in the day, which I believe were still high and often financed, but in a realm that people could still consider financing it. This is in contrast to some of the quotes people have shared which seems like a mortgage-type loan amount.

It would also be interesting how the costs would change if they used the existing power poles in rural areas when these already carry the copper, or whether they can use the conduits when the copper is buried.

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