Oh how I wish for the old Telecom monopoly sometimes. I, along with others, despair at the dogs breakfast the service levels offered Chorus have become. Thank you Mr. Cunliffe.

I thought I might share of my experiences with dealing with this entity. I invite any comment or suggestion that might benefit my clients featured in Cases 1 and 3. While the rollout in Case 2 irks me, I'm not losing sleep over it, the missus needs to clear her backlog on MySky before I give up my VDSL.

Case 1. Out of legislative requirement, client is moving out of what has become a fast developing peri-urban area in Auckland. When approached 14 months ago, Chorus (through our provider) assured us that services will be delivered to the address by June/July 2016. With this in mind the client dug a 1m deep, 150m trench and laid down conduit from the boundary line to where the new building will be. After a brief discussion we agreed a 10pr copper cable being fed through it might be a good idea (just in case). When I checked again in Oct '15, that was pushed back to Apr/May '17. Come Jan '16 it had fallen off the map. The best that we could hope for is a 1-2Mb ADSL connection.

Interestingly, after a lot of letter writing (to applicable MPs and Ministers) and hand wringing, VisionStream called to say that they were 'scoping' the site and a design would be imminent. Anticipated completion date Oct/Nov '16. That was nearly 4 months ago and so far it's still in 'design'. The client moves into the new premises in 8 weeks. Seems that we're going to be giving Netspeed's 4G a good test. As it'll need to support both data and SIP.

Case 2. Our own property. Rixon, the Chorus contractors, dug up the footpaths and berms along our road some months ago. When they first arrived, I spotted them wandering around with maps and drawings in hand looking for something. Being curious and neighbourly I went to see if I could help. They showed me the drawings and said they were hunting for the existing copper cable plinth. They said it was to be their endpoint to complete the install for our street. I showed them the one that sits just inside our fence at the corner of property. The one that has conduit running from it to the corner of my house. Elated, they sprayed a line of paint along the length of our berm and up to the fence. Then went to resume work on trenches. I watched them go up the other side of our street and then down ours. The trench stopped at our next door neighbour....35m short of the plinth location. Because of time constraints, the work crew told me that they were instructed to cut work short and showed me where the cable ended The opposite end of the property. The end where there is a small orchard of fruit trees between the fence line and a wide concrete apron that encompasses that side of the house and carport. I was told to take it up with Chorus. Chorus said take it up the ISP.

Case 3. Another client, a medical practitioner. He moved into his new premises in a new medical 'campus' in South Auckland last weekend. Application was made for services in May. As the new centre is fibre only we were told it would take 6-8 weeks before services would be delivered. 15 weeks later the job is apparently still at the 'consent' stage. Which has us all perplexed as the consents were given 13 weeks ago. The cable cluster is actually already in the the manhole directly outside the client's new office window. Before the interior was even begun I sighted the conduit duct. It came through from the manhole and up the wall into the ceiling space. Cables for the other 4 units in the wing are all accounted for right above his head.

Chorus have offered us an emergency copper feed (say what? I thought this was fibre only) to provide a landline and ADSL, but it'd cost the practice $4500.

Case 4. Chorus came and put fibre into the next neighbour's house. They dug a 4cm* deep trench parallel to the driveway and left him with an eye sore plumb centre of the front wall of his house. When he asked me what he could about it, I suggested some dense shrubbery.

* I was under the impression (or delusion) that these trenches were to be no less than 'spade depth' or 30cm.