Thousands miss out on city fibre rollout

About 8000 Christchurch properties have missed out on a city-wide fibre broadband rollout.

Many of these residents, who all live within the city boundary, have been told they will have to pay thousands of dollars to get access because Christchurch City Council-owned network provider Enable says it is not cost-effective to install fibre to their homes.

A group of 36 homes at the top of Huntsbury hill have to pay $41,400, and residents at the top of Worsleys Rd in Cracroft have to pay $82,800, before Enable will install fibre broadband to 49 properties there.

In both cases, properties are a few hundred metres from homes where fibre has already been installed at no direct cost to the owner.

Enable has also been dealing with residents in other parts of the city who do not have fibre, including on the corner of Harewood Rd and Woolridge Rd, at the top of Highstead Rd in Redwood, and on the corner of Yaldhurst Rd and Russley Rd.

Communities surrounding Lyttelton Harbour – including Cass Bay, Corsair Bay and Governors Bay – also do not have access to fibre, along with many lifestyle properties and smaller pockets of homes.

Enable’s engagement and sustainable development head Daniel Herd said about 95 per cent (165,000) of properties within the Christchurch City Council boundary had access to fibre, which was above the Government’s target of 87 per cent. About 8000 properties were outside its coverage area.

He said the company was keen to keep working with the community to provide solutions. It had already unsuccessfully tried to seek additional funding from the Government, but would keep trying.

Enable was willing to make a similar dollar value investment to what it had made to reach other properties within the Christchurch city boundary, Herd said.

Cracroft resident David Pairman has been trying to convince 28 of his neighbours to pay

$3000 each so Enable would install fibre to 49 properties on the upper section of Worsleys Rd. He said he believed it was unrealistic to expect all 49 property owners to pay, which was why he had set the lower goal of 28.

‘‘I’m quite desperate for [fibre broadband], and I’m prepared to pay. I can afford to pay.’’

But Pairman understood many people were either unable to pay or did not want to because they believed it was unfair. He agreed that it was unfair, but did not see any other way to get reliable and fast internet access.

Charles Moore, who lives in the same area, said that instead of paying dividends to the council, Enable should be putting its profits back into extending the network.

He did not believe he should have to pay for a fibre connection, because he already paid a considerable amount in rates.

As a temporary measure, Moore has signed up to Elon Musk’s satellite broadband service Starlink, which costs him $159 a month.

He was upset that homes on the hill section of Worsleys Rd could not get fibre but properties in a new subdivision in neighbouring Westmorland were connected.

Herd said Enable provided fibre to that subdivision at the cost of the developer, which also provided the civil construction work at no cost to Enable.