UnisonFibre sticks to network pledge

The decision to offer free fibre connections was made prior to the announcement Unison had lost its bid to partner the Government's fibre rollout, says UnisonFibre marketing and sales manager Wayne Baird.
He said the Government announcement had taken too long and UnisonFibre had "just wanted to get on with it", he said.
"The decision was made because the business community needed it."
Any move by Chorus, the arm of Telecom that won the bid to partner the Government, would not make a difference to the free offer and Mr Baird was confident prices offered by retail internet providers would be competitive.
Locals would hopefully return the same public spirit, because UnisonFibre was community owned, he said.
Only organisations along the existing 140km fibre loop, through Hastings, Napier and Havelock North, would receive the free connection. Onekawa and Hastings CBD would be the first benefactors of the staged offer.
Ten retail service providers (RSPs) were partners in the offer, three of which were local companies: Airnet, Neocom and Wasp.
The other companies were FX Networks, Solarix, iTco, Safe NZ, Datacom, Modica and VIP.
Currently the maximum speed offered was 1Gbps but that speed could increase, Mr Baird said. "We could go up to 10Gbps - but that decision would be market driven."
RSP Neocom quoted Hawke's Bay Today a 10Mbps connection, with no data quantity cap, at $499 per month, 30Mbps with no data cap at $725 and 50Mbps with no data cap at $899. Prices were exclusive of GST.
Telecom's standard connection speeds were dependent on how close a business was to a roadside cabinet, due to the limitations of copper wire.
The highest possible speed "in theory", according to its website, was 24Mbps but many limiting factors were listed. A Telecom connection with a 60GB data allowance was $97.73 per month, plus GST. There was no connection fee with a 24 month contract.
Airnet was testing a new copper-wire service called VDSL with reported speeds of 27Mbps down and 8Mbps up from Havelock North trial user Mogul.
UnisonFibre was part of Unison Networks, which was owned by electricity account holders through a trust. The company also owned the electricity lines in Rotorua and Taupo, which has also received the free offer.
Unison Networks were enjoying a synergy with its fibre network. It was used both for internet connection and to monitor the performance/operation of its network - called the Smart Grid.
Eventually all households would have Smart Meters on their premises to offer power-consumption options and at the same time provide fibre internet connections.