The first couple of years after the UFB started were nervous for Chorus as uptake of fibre was slow. Photo / File
The first couple of years after the UFB started were nervous for Chorus as uptake of fibre was slow. Photo / File
COMMENT:
The UFB fibre to the premises project has two and a half years to go before completion, and you'd have to be very churlish to declare it anything else than a success.
Apart from the occasional installation wobble, you rarely hear anything else than "yeah, we've gotUFB" if you ask about someone's broadband installation. Which is exactly how it should be, broadband that Just Works so that you don't have to waste time and life over it.
Getting to that stage though wasn't assured for the companies working on the UFB though. Everyone knew fibre-optic networks was the way to go meet future speed and capacity demand, but the timing for when that should happen was far from certain.
The local fibre companies were asked to take a leap of faith.
As Chorus' corporate relations general manager Ian Bonnar said "it was a bit like taking out a huge mortgage," referring to the government loans to the network builder and wholesale provider which won the biggest slice of the UFB rollout contracts.
The National government of the time was inspired by Singapore's fibre broadband rollout structure, but plenty of work was required at every level from wholesale to retail providers, and pick the right technology that could be deployed affordably and fast, yet work well.
Importantly, whatever technology that was picked had to meet regulatory requirements too.
Nobody else had done anything like the UFB, and Bonnar said everyone involved in the project had to learn as they went along.
"At the Broadband World Forum a few years ago, people said 'you're nuts!' when we told them what we were doing in New Zealand," Bonnar said.
Apart from the challenge of creating demand for the UFB among broadband users, the LFCs had a tough sales job with telcos and internet providers who were far from enthusiastic to join a government-led broadband project which might or might not succeed.
Asked what the biggest technology challenge was for the UFB, Bonnar said: "scaling up quickly - there was no time to do trials".
The first couple of years after the UFB started were nervous for Chorus as uptake of fibre was slow.
Unexpectedly, the switch was flicked from 2015 and onwards: Netflix appeared and everyone wanted fibre connections to watch high-definition movies over the internet.
Now the installers are busy ahead of the Rugby World Cup.
What helped the UFB build push forward was the government's unwavering insistence on fibre to the home only to deliver the broadband.
Installers are busy ahead of the Rugby World Cup. Photo / File
The UFB LFCs could focus on fibre and learn to overcome problems during the early phases, making for repeatable and scalable deployment later on.
Learning from experience with only a single technology to worry about means UFB installations have come down - Chorus budgets for $2100 per premise, Bonnar said - and are quicker now than when the project started.
Australia took a different, more complex path with its NBN for political reasons and switched away from a pure fibre network.
They are now literally paying the price. Across the ditch, the cost per premise to deploy the multi-technology mix NBN which can use copper, cable, wireless and in some places, fibre broadband has gone up to A$3100 ($3288) this year and the government has had to top up the network build funding with tens of billions of dollars.
Despite the higher cost, Aussie NBN customers receive pretty sad broadband service. Telstra for example advertises 20 to 40 megabit/s minimum NBN plans for up to A$90 a month. For the same amount or a little more, UFB customers can get 900/400 Mbps fibre connections. I can also tell you that Aussies hate to hear that comparison, and that there's 10 gigabit/s UFB on trial currently.
Moving to fibre broadband also results in lower overall power usage for networks (although Bonnar said the optic gear in the exchanges generates a fair bit of heat, requiring additional cooling) which is better for the environment. Fibre optic equipment also takes less space and Chorus is now pondering how to capitalise on the freed up room in exchanges.
Although there was an element of fortuitous timing involved with streaming video creating a demand spike, there's no doubt that UFB got most things right. The biggest thing that went wrong wasn't technology related, but how Chorus managed UFB contractors.
The UFB was a gamble, but it didn't end up as a government-led white elephant.
Bonnar says Denmark is looking closely at the UFB for its own national broadband network build out, and perhaps parts of the NZ project could be packaged up as an export opportunity?
Australia in particular will need all the help it can get when the antiquated tech they use for the NBN runs out of puff and has to be replaced.
