A worker carrying out the installation of ultra fast broadband.
A record upsurge in demand for ultrafast broadband connections since Christmas is exacerbating a shortage of technicians to do the work, say fibre companies.
Speaking at yesterday's release by the Telecommunications Forum of a report on the status of the industry, Chorus chief executive Mark Ratcliffe said both January and
February had seen a record number of connections and his company, which is responsible for most of the UFB roll-out nationwide, has had to boost its technician capacity by 30 per cent in the past four months.
Four companies have been contracted by the Government to meet its objective of rolling out UFB to 80 per cent of the country by 2022.
Chorus received more than 13,000 new fibre connection orders in January, the highest in one month, and it's currently completing an average 400 new connections a day.
"We need, collectively, twice as many technicians than we have working by the middle of the year, it's that kind of magnitude," Ratcliffe said.
