Chorus says copper lines will stay in meantime

CHORUS says it will leave customers’ copper phone lines in place when it connects homes to the ultrafast broadband network, unless there is a compelling reason to remove them, at least for the next 12 months.

The assurance might be positive for competition, but less so for homeowners concerned about a plethora of unsightly overhead cables.

Chorus will begin wiring up some Wellington harbour-view properties in Khandallah and Thorndon with fibre-optic cables from July.

In a letter to the Commerce Commission, Internetnz policy consultant Reg Hammond questioned whether allowing Chorus to irreversibly cut customers off from the copper network might result in higher prices for UFB services.

Hammond said it had always been maintained that competition from copper services, which are regulated by the Commerce Commission, would ‘‘moderate’’ the retail price of UFB services, which are not regulated.

Chorus spokeswoman Melanie Marshall said the company still had to make long-term decisions on what to do with customers’ copper lines. In the meantime, it would leave them in place, unless that significantly increased the cost of installing fibre. It might need to remove copper wiring if there was no space in an underground duct for both services, for example.

In areas where phone lines are not buried underground, leaving copper lines in place would mean consumers would have two communications cables running into their homes rather than one.

It is understood Chorus does not have the legal right to string new aerial cables over people’s properties to reach back sections.