World class broadband reaching Auckland

World class broadband connectivity reaching Aucklanders

Auckland businesses can now tap into the fastest broadband in town courtesy of a major investment from community-owned Vector.

The latest Vector fibre network expansion has involved a loop from the North Shore to West, South and East Auckland, and back to the city centre, where the company already has an extensive fibre network.

Following a just-completed two year project, Vector has extended its fibre optic network to within reach of thousands of local businesses and homes, laying hundreds of kilometres of fibre.

The project is a continuation of a 10 year build that has already seen over 60 schools, libraries and community centres connected to the North Shore Education Access Loop (NEAL) fibre network.

Vector’s fibre network is now also outside the door of tens of thousands of Auckland businesses and homes, says chief executive Simon Mackenzie.

Some customers currently connected to the Vector network are experiencing equally fast download and upload broadband speeds of up to 10Gbit/s.

“That kind of speed is far superior to traditional broadband speeds currently available on rival copper networks and the potential is for much faster,” says Mr Mackenzie

“And that means locals will receive even better connectivity which means people can work from home thanks to real time video conferencing, have access to e-health and far superior e-learning, plus a host of other possibilities yet to be developed.”

Ultimately the company hopes to spread its fibre network to the door (more than 450,000 premises) of every Auckland business, home, education and healthcare facility within the next seven years, says Mr Mackenzie.

Ultra-fast fibre connectivity will allow people to simply connect to the fibre network through an internet service provider, giving them instant access to ultra-fast broadband.

However, while Vector remains committed to its fibre network, the scale of that investment will be largely determined by whether it is chosen to partner with the Government in building an extensive Auckland-wide fibre network – one that will feature ultra-fast broadband connectivity.

Vector has submitted an Auckland only proposal to the Government as part of the Government’s $1.5 billion ultra-fast broadband initiative. If successful, the project will be underway by the end of the year, ensuring all of Auckland is one step closer to world leading broadband connectivity with minimum speeds of 100Mbit/s.

While the Government wants a fibre to the door network to reach every Aucklander and 75% of all New Zealanders within 10 years, Vector says it can beat that deadline by three years.

The fibre to the door concept is being reinforced by Vector’s current public awareness campaign which features a television commercial that has even made its way to YouTube. It has also attracted international interest, including leading European and US fibre commentators.

Vector has also launched a website (www.fibretothedoor.co.nz) where Aucklanders can vote on their preference for fibre and support their vote with a comment.

The website has so far attracted tens of thousands of visitors and prompted thousands of pro-fibre votes from around the country.

“The vast majority of people who have visited our website are in favour of our fibre to the door concept,” says Mr Mackenzie.

“I liken the spread of ultra-fast fibre networks to the development of electricity when the first switch was flicked a century ago. No one knew just how it would evolve. Fibre is the electricity of this century. It is a new network for customers, technology suppliers and retailers – not traditionally telecommunications,” says Mr Mackenzie.

Vector hopes to connect even more business to its fibre network, followed by residential customers.

Mr Mackenzie says the latest network growth has also enabled the "backbone" of Vector’s fibre infrastructure to be configured in a ring formation around greater Auckland to give a higher level of network reliability and backup during a fault situation.

ENDS

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