Informer 317: 29 January 2016

To help us meet the high demand for fibre we’re bringing in United Communications Group to assist with installations for multi dwelling units in the Lower South Island.  

What's happening?

From 1 March, multi dwelling unit specialists, Universal Communications Group (UCG) will taking over from Downer to carry out building fibre installations in Ashburton, Dunedin, Invercargill, Gore, Oamaru, Queenstown, Timaru and Wanaka.

Responsibility for gaining building consent will also transfer to UCG from our current property specialists Wilson Hurst.

We don’t expect this change to have any impact on your daily operations and there’s no change to our multi dwelling unit processes and standards for fibre installations.

What's the detail?

UCG will be responsible for the all the fibre installation requirements for buildings in the areas listed above. This means everything from getting consents, building the backbone fibre and connecting fibre to all the individual units.

From 1 March, all orders for building fibre and individual unit fibre connections will go to UCG, along with any orders that Downer or Wilson Hurst haven’t started working on.

Downer will continue to carry out fibre installations in the area for single dwelling units and rights of Way. They will also continue the fibre maintenance, UFB build, copper provisioning and copper maintenance work they do today.

Once UCG has installed fibre to the individual unit, Downer will be responsible for maintaining that connection as well as any subsequent service changes that require a technician.

Who do I contact?

A detailed transition plan will be available from your Service Delivery Manager in the next two weeks. Please contact them if you have any other questions.