Fibre Optics on Its Way

The District is seeing the biggest leap in technology in decades. With over a 168km of ducting almost laid, fibre optic cable for the District’s use is now being “blown” through the ducting from Palmerston North to Pahiatua and from Eketahuna to Norsewood.

This is the first major step to create a competitive market in the Tararua and compares to the work Telecom is doing to upgrade their networks in the District. There are four main parties involved; Inspired Networks, FX Networks, and the councils of Tararua and Horizons. The councils are major anchor tenants of Inspired Networks. The ability to cost share has made the project possible.

Woodville to Dannevirke fibre will proceed following Council’s decision on Wednesday to approve extra funding of $225,000. Completing this work now will save substantial extra cost and completes the back-haul required to have fibre available to the businesses in the Dannevirke town centre at speeds of 100 megabits per second. In addition, cabling from Dannevirke to Norsewood has been confirmed with the assistance of FX Networks. Council has been given access to a second pair of fibre for community good purposes, such as allowing schools to communicate within the Tararua at a very low cost.

Council is also now in the infancy of planning to re-deploy its microwave link as a relay for ISP services to Pongaroa and possibly Weber.

While the project is not going to immediately solve the remote rural farm problems, wireless companies are showing a lot of interest in how it might help them provide extended services. The Inspired Network pilot scheme in Mangamaire to have residents drag fibre across their farms is a first for New Zealand.

Immediate beneficiaries, if they choose to become customers, will be up to five schools, two medical centres, the Dannevirke town centre businesses and the councils. As a result of the project, Horizons have made Woodville their main back-up operations site. As internet service providers hook in, the speed of town based services will significantly improve. Chorus is also planning to upgrade Dannevirke and Pahiatua with their next generation ADSL-2 service by October 2011. Another real boost will come as extra Government funding becomes available and the services can be extended even further – hopefully to cover most schools in the district. This will be very important for future opportunities in education.

Council had been awaiting access to possible Government subsidies but access to funds has been delayed for over 12 months while a policy was being developed. The project meets the new application criteria recently announced by Government and is therefore likely to qualify for substantial funding to enable further rollout of broadband services.
 

What it will bring is opportunity for the future and an improving service. It is not going to be an instant silver bullet but a springboard for development. A combination of copper, wireless, satellite and fibre will still be needed for many years.

Mr Wimsett, Manager of Corporate Services said “Very fast broadband development is crucial for the future wellbeing of New Zealand and the Tararua District. Right now it is about getting a low cost, dependable back-haul fibre line and building from there.”

In addition, Council is aiming to save $1million dollars over the next 30 years through access to the fibre by not having to continually upgrade its current district wireless network.