Northpower’s fast fibre network wins national award
Northern Advocate, Whangarei
When it comes to news coverage of whose doing what in the high stakes business of broadband services in New Zealand the big national players tend to hog the headlines. But local lines network company Northpower is the name getting all the attention lately after winning a major award for its fibre-optic network.
Northpower won the best next generation fibre-optic network award at last month’s Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) Innovation Awards. TUANZ CEO Ernie Newman said he had reviewed world leading fast fibre networks in major cities in Asia and Europe but, “had seen nothing to match Northpower’s network for simplicity, ingenuity, and especially cost effectiveness.”
High praise indeed, and he could have added that Northpower also deserved credit for being fast off the mark when opportunity first beckoned, and having the vision to partner with a major player in order to leverage it’s existing assets and experience as a Northland lines network. The major player was TelstraClear, with whom Northpower formed an exclusive partnership as part of an agreement that saw TelstraClear make a million dollar upgrade of its Auckland to Whangarei fibre link, bringing ultra-fast broadband to Whangarei.
TelstraClear have built NZ’s first IP Network, and the web based system is revolutionising the country’s tired and outdated phone and data services. Northpower is enabling the local delivery of the new IP system by utilising it’s existing lines network to run fibre cables into Whangarei businesses at less than half the cost of what telecommunications companies would have to pay to develop a replicating infrastructure. The new network is capable of delivering up to 1000 megabits per second upload and download speeds, a huge improvement for the many local businesses that have endured years of dial-up service followed by less than spectacular broadband speeds. Residential customers are next in line to gain access to the new service, and from early next year Northpower’s open access high speed broadband network will be available to all telecos who have products able to interface with the IP technology.
Over 100km of fast fibre network has been developed in only 18 months, and Northpower’s initiative and success to date should strengthen its bid to win a share of the government’s $1.5 billion broadband fund and accelerate the building of ultra-fast broadband in Whangarei and the wider community. You can support Northpower’s efforts to achieve this goal by registering your interest in receiving ultra-fast broadband.
Find out more about our Fibre developments in the Fibre Network Section
Media Contact
For more information please contact:
Steve Macmillan
Public Affairs Manager
Phone: 09 978 2903
Mobile: 029 770 4693
Email Steve
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