FIBRE > UFB Programme

UFB PROGRAMME

UFB Fibre provides a fast, reliable, consistent experience – even at the busiest time of the day. It delivers speeds in excess of 25 Megabits per second (Mbps), using optical fibre technology rather than the slower copper technology (ADSL or VDSL).

Fibre allows multiple people in a household or business to be online at the same time. You will experience faster download and upload speeds, more reliable connectivity, speeds will be consistent and you won’t have to deal with buffering.

Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) is one of the biggest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in New Zealand.

The UFB roll out was completed in December 2022, bringing high-speed fibre broadband to 412 towns and cities. Uptake is currently at 73 percent of UFB premises passed as of 30 June 2023, and it continues to increase.

The benefits of UFB are wide-reaching and help New Zealanders to not only engage in business, trade and tourism but has also been essential to support home education, social connection as well as business productivity over the last few years.

The programme was continually extended and at completion the final towns to be covered were small communities including townships such as Haast, Ōwhango, Tuatapere and Eketāhuna.

CIP’s delivery partners Chorus, Northpower, Enable, and Tuatahi First Fibre took on the job of innovators to find cost-effective, deployment solutions to bring UFB to these locations and many more across the motu – particularly challenging towards the end of the roll-out.

Reaching these locations on time and under budget is an excellent achievement that shows the commitment by Government and delivery partners to expand fibre broadband across Aotearoa.

Celebrating the completion of the UFB programme

The first stage of the Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) programme – UFB1 – was completed a month early and within budget in November 2019. This stage made high quality broadband available to 79 per cent of New Zealanders.

CIP joined delivery partner Chorus to celebrate the final fibres being installed in the network with an event held in December 2022 at Manea Footprints of Kupe in Opononi. The town’s isolation is characteristic of many of the final towns covered in the build programme.

UFB connectivity in these smaller towns and cities is fundamental to achieving improved health and education outcomes, new and improved business opportunities, and greater connectivity with main centres as well as internationally.

Changing with the times

Much has changed since the programme started in 2010. Broadband download capacity was around 10GB in 2010 and it has improved nearly 60-fold to 585GB in 2023 according to Chorus’ Q4 results and is continuing to increase.

During this time, we have collectively experienced the arrival of online streaming services, three Rugby World Cups and a global pandemic: all of which have led to increases in data usage across the network.

The UFB network is designed and future-proofed for growth, with Chorus forecasting 1,000GB monthly data usage per household by 2025. Consumers can already buy 8 Gbps services to the home and with future optical technology, upgrade speeds and capacity are largely unconstrained.

UFB build partners

Crown Infrastructure Partners worked with four companies to build UFB across New Zealand.

Chorus

Chorus is the largest partner of CIP’s four Co-Investment Partners and is contracted to deliver fibre to about 1.3 million homes, businesses, schools and medical centres right across New Zealand by 2022.

Rolling out UFB to more than 350 communities right across the country.

Enable

The Enable Group (Enable) is made up of Enable Services Limited and local fibre company Enable Networks Limited.

Services Christchurch, Rangiora, Kaiapoi, Woodend, Lincoln, Prebbleton and Rolleston.

Northpower

Established in 1920, Northpower has expanded from a Northland-owned and operated electricity distribution network to become one of the largest multi-utility contractors in New Zealand, with a reputation for excellence and innovation.

Services Kaipara and Whangarei

Tuatahi First Fibre

Tuatahi First Fibre was established as New Zealand’s first local fibre company (LFC) in 2011.

Services the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Whanganui.

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