Media Release: 1 July 2015

Chorus today submitted its written, non-binding response to the Government's Registration of Interest on the second phases of its Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) and Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) programmes and the Mobile Black Spot Fund.

Chorus today submitted its written, non-binding response to the Government's Registration of Interest on the second phases of its Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) and Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) programmes and the Mobile Black Spot Fund.

Within its response, Chorus expressed its full support of the Government's vision to extend fibre further, while maintaining an open access, wholesale-only, industry model. The strength of this model is that it gives rural and urban households access to a consistent set of broadband services from a wide range of retailers.

Mark Ratcliffe, Chief Executive of Chorus, said:

"We fully support the Government's initiative of extending fibre-based broadband further. Within Chorus, we share this vision through our desire to bring better broadband to more New Zealanders regardless of where they live.

"With an 85 per cent uptake of new fixed RBI connections in the first phase of the programme, we have a proven track record in building broadband infrastructure. In our partnership with the Government we have consistently met our UFB and RBI milestones and while doing so, developed innovative deployment techniques allowing us to deliver better broadband further."

Chorus has registered its interest in both the broadband extension programmes and the mobile black spot fund. Chorus' proposal for UFB and RBI is built around the extension of its fibre-to-the-home and fibre-to-the-node architecture, offering a consistent set of high-speed, high-capacity wholesale broadband services to all retailers using existing Chorus systems.

Chorus is open to different partnering models that line up with the Government’s aspiration of extending the reach of fibre further. The company has a proven track record of partnering with local authorities, communities and other network operators.

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