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Copper out and fibre-optic cabling in

Published on November 30^th 2009, 12:50pm

The revolution is fibre-optic cabling.  Data is transmitted through tiny slivers of glass fibre, so fine that they instantly permeate skin and enter the bloodstream if touched with unprotected hands.

Whangarei’s access to fibre-optic cabling is way ahead of other regions around New Zealand thanks to publicly owned lines company Northpower, working in partnership with telecommunications company TelstraClear.

The telco is part of the equation as retailer of fibre optic products, because lines companies don’t do retailing.

Northpower has seized the day by replacing its aging copper cable network with fibre optic cabling (a copper cable-based supervisory link used for hot water control and network security is attached to powerlines).

The initial focus is on assisting business by running fibre optic cable through central Whangarei.

Such cabling is life-changing for bsuiness in particular because it allows speed-of-light data transfer without signal loss, interference or network overload - unlike copper wires (the basis of the current Telecom current communications network).

There is nothing in the city streets to indicate a revolution is under way, apart from an extra line running unobtrusively with existing power lines - artfully hung to `sag’ at the same level - along with the occasional plate in the ground indicating “joint pits” where a subsidiary fibre-optic cable joins a main one. 

Northpower fibre and marketing manager Darren Mason says running fibre cables into customer’s premises with powerlines is easy and costs less than half what telecos would have to pay to developing an underground infrastructure. And tucked into existing infrastructure there is little visual impact. 

The service has been available since the beginning of this year. Fourteen per cent of businesses on fibre routes have signed up, above the ten per cent expected at this early stage.

TelstraClear’s exclusivitiy contract expires early next year, at which point the door will be wide open for other internet retailers to compete with each other with fibre-optic products.

Northpower chair Warren Moyes says seven or eight providers are waiting in the wings to offer their products across the system. “Hopefully that will create increasing demand and that is the key to keeping costs down and planning for expansion of the service beyond the densely-occupied inner city business area,” he said.

Northpower’s “open” fibre optic system from next year would be good for consumers because they would be free to choose the best and most economic products for their needs, he said, whereas consumers who had to use a private provider’s cabling would be locked into using that company’s retail products.

“As a community-owned lines/fibre company we are committed to giving back to the community. Fibre is a natural addition the critical regional instructure we provide. It’s a cost-effective investment in the future,’’ he said.

Cost-wise it was a different story outside the built-up urban areas, he said. Uptake would be much lower in rural locations and Northpower could not proceed without some assistance from the government’s $1.5 billion fund for ultra-fast broadband.

The government’s expressed wish to get the service into rural schools meant that rural areas as a whole would eventually benefit from this roll-out, especially the important agricultural businesses.

He said Northpower was very much part of a collective calling itself the New Zealand Regional Fibre Group, 17 lines and fibre optic service providers working to facilitate compatible regional fibre networks.

Members would be submitting bids for funding individually and in clusters, with bids due in by January 29.

Find out more about our Fibre developments in the Fibre Network Section

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