Vodafone New Zealand has suggested that the government stop the rollout of Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) in Wellington and Christchurch to save money. Vodafone New Zealand chief executive Russell Stanners said that Vodafone's HFC network could be used instead as it is available to 85 percent of Wellington homes and almost two-thirds of homes in Christchurch, the BusinessDay reports. According to Stanners, the proposal would save the government NZD 360 million for rolling out fibre and another NZD 140 million to connect homes to the UFB network. This would also help close Chorus' funding gap. Stanners added that the cable network could deliver download speeds on par with fibre at least for the next five years. Vodafone New Zealand approached Crown Fibre Holdings with the proposal to wholesale its cable network to ISPs and the company hopes to discuss the proposal with ICT minister Amy Adams shortly.
Internet advocacy group InternetNZ strongly opposes Vodafone’s suggestion. The group said it would be retrograde move that makes little sense for anyone other than Vodafone. “While we support Vodafone and others doing some lateral thinking about how to speed up and improve the UFB rollout, this particular suggestion just doesn’t pass muster. The HFC network can deliver decent speeds, but it’s not future proof – the UFB is, and New Zealand needs to stick with it,” the group said.
