Copper withdrawal in fibre areas

Our Chorus SFA areas are almost all under withdrawal now and all will be in the next 6 months, however only consumers who receive a notice from us are included in the withdrawal process.  Further withdrawals will continue in Other LFC fibre area’s, once our planning is completed. 

There are also some remaining copper connections in withdrawn areas which fall outside the Copper Withdrawal Code (services provided to non-building access points and commercial services).  We have sent letters to those RSPs with such connections setting out a date for withdrawal of these services.  If you have these connections, we’d encourage you to explore alternative services as soon as possible and let us know if you need help.

As we come to the end of providing services notice in Chorus fibre areas, this WIP will become increasingly important to focus on. Your assistance in this will be very much appreciated.

We have recently emptied our first exchange of all copper services. Birkdale exchange area has become our first fibre-only area in New Zealand. We have a few more on the verge of being empty which are a priority for us.

As of October 2024, we have:

• Emptied 1,511 Cabinets emptied
• Cabinets notified (not yet empty) - 972  
• Notified 98,000 Addresses
• Emptied Exchange – BKL (Birkdale)

FY24 Batch volume plan – high level 

Our high-level plan for this financial year is to include approx. 6,000 services per batch, maintaining the cadence of a batch every two months. Batches in Other LFC fibre areas have been successful, and we will continue to include some of these areas; this activity will increase once copper withdrawal within Chorus fibre areas is complete.

Information for consumers

The Copper Withdrawal Code requires Chorus to meet minimum requirements before we can withdraw copper – including  providing impacted consumers with easily accessible information. Our team has been working hard to ensure the information we provide consumers is as informative as possible. We hope it helps consumers to have informed conversations with you. 

The Commerce Commission released an amended version of the Copper Withdrawal Code, which is in effect from 5 April 2024. We have reflected these changes in our collateral and notification process. This updated collateral is now available for you to view and have on hand to support your key messages for ongoing conversations:

1. Letter addressed to the Occupant, which forms part of the notice.

1. First notice
2. Second notice 
3. Third Notice/Final reminder
4. Continuation notice*

*This is only sent to consumers if Chorus are not able to withdraw copper, typically because of an open fibre order placed during the notice period
 

2. An accompanying guide with more consumer-focused detail, which also forms part of the notice. [View booklet]
 

3. A dedicated copper withdrawal web page on the Chorus website for consumers, which contains everything they need to know.

With the Copper ‘stop sell’ in place since early 2023, we won’t be issuing specific ‘stop sell’ notices for each batch. Instead, when we launch a new batch, the copper withdrawal web page will have the impacted list added.