Telecommunications industry supports changes to land access legislation

The TCF welcomes the announcement by the Minister of Communications, Amy Adams that the Government is moving to change legislation to assist the roll-out of UFB in situations involving shared property. The changes will remove a barrier to connecting to the UFB network.

The current requirement to get consent from all property owners is slowing down the installation process and creating frustration for consumers who are actively seeking to upgrade to UFB. The proposed changes are a positive step forward and will help reduce the time required for consumers to get their fibre connection. The changes are also estimated to save the industry costs of between $18 and $40 million over the next four years.

The TCF CEO, Geoff Thorn says “The demand for UFB has been growing at an unprecedented rate. Clearly, consumers want access to fast broadband. However, many New Zealanders need to get their neighbour’s consent in order to take the UFB connection down a shared driveway, or right of way. At the moment, if a neighbour simply doesn’t respond to the request for consent, the consumer wanting the connection misses out.
“Broadband connections are no longer a ‘nice to have’. New Zealand has a world class UFB network and it is important that all New Zealanders have the opportunity to connect to this network, and not be beholden to their neighbour.”

Thorn says, “Network operators are using a range of technologies to provide the fibre connection to the consumer’s premises. Many of these technologies have a low impact on the shared land. Consequently, the TCF supports the idea that the industry should be able to get on with constructing these low impact installations, after providing advanced notice to all property owners.”

It is also important for consumers to understand that connecting fibre to their home or office is a construction job. A job which requires careful planning and qualified installers. The very high demand for connections means that there will always be some delay. To place the size of the task for the industry into perspective, the number of UFB connections is currently about twice the number of new connections the electricity industry is doing, and it is increasing rapidly as consumers understand the benefits of fibre.

It is expected that the new rules will be in place by the end of the year, once legislation has been passed.

ENDS

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