While most of the country will have to wait for the Government’s ultra-fast broadband initiative to bring fibre to their door, the estimated 10,000 residents of a new development in Hobsonville will jump the queue.
According to a report in the New Zealand Herald today, Vector is laying both underground power and fibre cables to the new settlement on former Air Force land.
This is a very efficient and cost-effective way to get fibre to homes and should be considered for all new commercial and residential developments across the country.
It also demonstrates the critical role power line and other utility companies can play in pushing fibre out to homes.
While not all utility companies have ambitions to own their own fibre networks, like Vector and others, no power line, road or water, or even sewerage, pipe should be laid down before partnerships with fibre network operators are explored.
After all, as staed in the story, digging the trenches is the most expensive part of rolling out this infrastructure – you may as well get the best value out of it in one hit.
Hopefully once the Crown Fibre Company and its regional subsidiaries are up and running, this will become standard practice in all new developments.