We paused all copper withdrawal trials when New Zealand moved to Alert Level 4 in August. Over this time, we have been reassessing how we run our copper withdrawal trials with the nation in varying levels of COVID-19 restrictions, with minimal disruption to you and your customers. 

Our revised plans help us to keep moving forward while adapting to any further alert level changes:

• Outside of Auckland – we plan to start trials back up in line with the dates below. There are currently no Waikato cabinets in these plans. 
• Auckland – we are exploring starting back up as the government’s staged approach to lessening restrictions progresses. We are still working through our options and will update you in due course.   

 

Changes to batches:

 

Batch 1

Since this batch is mostly in Auckland, its withdrawal process remains on hold. Inform letters will be sent to the 61 customers who still have active copper services.

Please note, we are installing fibre in Alert Level 3 so any customers who order fibre can / will get it installed. Please continue to let us know about any at-risk customers. 

 

Inflight batches 2-4 

All addresses in batches 2-4 will be consolidated into two groups depending on their location:

• 4A: Cabinets in Auckland (on hold, start plan TBC)
• 4B: Cabinets outside Auckland (starting back up with a Further Notice on 6 December 2021)   

 

Batch 5 (new batch)

We previously sent you advance notice for this batch, but it was paused before any customer notices were sent. We’re now re-creating this batch focusing on areas outside Auckland. This batch’s notice period will begin on 17 November 2021. 

Volumes of impacted services this year are now significantly lower than the previously planned ~4500 services. 

 

Summary of changes

We have elected not to send any notices between the period of 13 December 2021 and 16 January 2022 to account for the December / January brownout period.  

 

2022 withdrawal programme

Our teams are currently working on a new plan for the next year and will share this with you once it’s confirmed . 

 

Contact 

Get in touch with your account team if you have any questions or email our copper withdrawal team at copperwithdrawal@chorus.co.nz. You can find more information on our dedicated copper withdrawal webpage.