Satellite plans for rural users losing copper in mobile blackspots other than Starlink?

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Satellite plans for rural users losing copper in mobile blackspots other than Starlink?

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MichaelNZ

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#3386978 25-Jun-2025 13:57

wellygary:

Fibre for 95% of Kiwis: Chorus proposal endorsed as national priority

Thanks for the link. 95% is even more ambitious then I was hoping for.

Much rather fibre to more homes and businesses then weapons for wars.

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nztim

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#3386980 25-Jun-2025 14:03

raytaylor:

We even get 30 year olds switching to us from starlink because when it breaks, it takes a long time to get it fixed.
Your local WISP probably has a next business day repair policy for even basic residential plans.

@raytaylor and I bet even if you were not the provider of the VOIP service you would assist a customer of yours with their ATA adapter and fixing any issues (for a fee of course)

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Goosey

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#3387025 25-Jun-2025 17:47

Tell us, do these oldies you are helping who quote “from ww2”, do they now own/use anything made from German or Japanese engineering….maybe love a good feed of Italian?

arguement doesn’t wash… world is mostly at peace (except for the religions and greedy one who insist on taking over their neighbors).

quickymart

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#3387077 25-Jun-2025 18:56

Would be great if there was some sort of map to see where it might be extended to - but I imagine it's early days yet.

MichaelNZ

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#3387080 25-Jun-2025 19:11

It is early days and the government has not agreed to it yet.

There are a bunch of areas waiting but thinking of my backyard:

Highly likely for new build: Norsewood (V), Pongaroa (A)

Rationale: These are viable sized areas with schools and existing copper broadband which no doubt they would like to switch off. I know for certain they have considered Norsewood.

Other possibilities for new build: Ormondville (A), Herbertville, Pourerere, Tikokino, Weber.

Rationale: I have done the numbers for Ormondville and while it does have DSL coverage its a lot fewer connections and the properties are more spread out. Tikokino is also spread out but Ongaonga got UFB so maybe they will get it too. Weber has very places but does have a school. Pourerere is viable population-wise but remote.

Other possibilities for expansion on existing coverage: Takapau (V), Waipukurau (V).

Rationale: I am surprised they didn't finish the job in Takapau. They have left a situation where most people can get UFB but they keep running VDSL services to feed a small number of people they didn't do.

And continue to expand out network around other towns and cities.

V = existing VDSL and A = existing ADSL coverage in the area.

Obviously the above is just my two cents how areas will be selected. I am not a mind reader nor do I know whether they will get funding, how much and what their plan is. And also there are a bunch of other areas around the country which will also be inline for UFB.

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snj

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#3387083 25-Jun-2025 19:30

quickymart:

Would be great if there was some sort of map to see where it might be extended to - but I imagine it's early days yet.

Was trying to see if I could locate hard numbers*, but can't, however, my gut guess would be that covering existing RBI VDSL2 areas (+ non-VDSL gaps between cabinets in denser rural areas - example, there is a gap of about 1.3km between two VDSL2 areas near me for instance according to the InternetNZ maps, just due to the cabinet positioning) would probably get close to 95%.

(*) Ideally some pre-Fibre VDSL2 coverage data would give something to compare to I'd think. Although with subdivisions in urban areas 95% probably is more concentrated than it used to be too.

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MichaelNZ

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#3387085 25-Jun-2025 19:40

Its public information Chorus wants to rid themselves of the DSL network. My bet is there is a quid pro quo they are expecting here which is to get out of supplying any copper to the last 5% of the population. So therefore it will be based on the easiest and most effective way to hit that number.

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raytaylor

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#3387103 25-Jun-2025 22:55

MichaelNZ:

Pourerere,

I already have (NGN Fibre Co) fibre passing about 30 properties at pourerere. But not much demand. People only want to pay for 2 months of service each year so its hard to justify spending more money on it. All the beach villages down the coast are like that, hence why RCG does so well there on cellular.

Ray Taylor

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raytaylor

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#3387104 25-Jun-2025 22:57

nztim:

@raytaylor and I bet even if you were not the provider of the VOIP service you would assist a customer of yours with their ATA adapter and fixing any issues (for a fee of course)

Yeah the retailer would help them sort that out. I get roped into a lot of internal infrastructure issues like sorting out voip services even though i just provide the fiber circuit. I dont really mind at all.

Ray Taylor

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MichaelNZ

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#3387112 25-Jun-2025 23:15

raytaylor:

I already have (NGN Fibre Co) fibre passing about 30 properties at pourerere. But not much demand. People only want to pay for 2 months of service each year so its hard to justify spending more money on it. All the beach villages down the coast are like that, hence why RCG does so well there on cellular.

Which makes total sense except Chorus have rolled out other holiday areas.

In theory we could offer someone 2 months of service but the work involved in setting up their account from a technical and billing perspective is not worth it for short stays unless they want to pay a premium.

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quickymart

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#3387118 26-Jun-2025 06:29

MichaelNZ:

Which makes total sense except Chorus have rolled out other holiday areas.

Can we not start on this again please, I think you've already made your personal views about your perceived unfairness of the fibre rollout quite clear previously.

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MichaelNZ

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#3387150 26-Jun-2025 10:26

quickymart:

I think you've already made your personal views about your perceived unfairness of the fibre rollout quite clear previously.

If you had read the thread before banging out the above you would have seen the area mentioned has no UFB. So totally irrelevant.

While previous discussions may have ventured into the topic of fairness, this one is about where will get the benefits of another $2.5 billion investment Chorus is currently pitching for. Which the government has not committed to. In other words pure speculation.

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JY

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#3395606 19-Jul-2025 22:00

2 months on, 10 months off - perfect for Starlink's Roam plans where you can pause the subscription.

Competition for Starlink is coming with Amazon's Kupier. OK only 78 production birds so far, so only 3,158 to go. And yes they had to catch a SpaceX ride. But you know when we first bought a few books from Amazon, a startup founded 30 years and 5 days ago as of this post, who'd have thought they'd be the juggernaut they are today?

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