Enable’s UFB project on track as demand grows

More than 30,000 extra Canterbury homes and businesses will be given the chance to sign up for ultrafast broadband in the next year.

Since the fibre rollout started in 2013, tens of thousands of homes have been given access to UFB.

Enable is more than 45 per cent through the city and surrounding towns project, with Government and Christchurch City Council funding. Chief executive Steve Fuller said Enable had set itself an aggressive target of reaching a further 33,000 homes and businesses in its ‘‘year five’’ deployment, which would run until July 2016.

‘‘Last year we announced a Year Four build programme to provide fibre broadband services to 26,000 more homes and businesses. We will have actually extended our network by 30,000 homes and businesses when we finish (the 2014-15) programme,’’ Fuller said.

The growing demand for fibre broadband across the city was showed by the 14.2 per cent take up rate by customers that had access to the newly laid cable.

That was one percentage point ahead of the national average, Fuller said.

The company was more aligned with its statement of intent targets than when it first started rolling fibre out, he said.

The year five programme of work would see suburbs such as Hillmorton, Hoon Hay, St Martins, Ferrymead and Sumner receive fibre broadband services for the first time.

It included the majority of remaining areas within the four avenues; large parts of St Albans, Edgeware, Richmond, Addington, Opawa and Hillsborough.

There would also be the near completion of Enable’s network deployment in the north-west suburbs. There was a focus on delivery to a final fifteen schools and 90 per cent of businesses in Christchurch by the end of December 2015.

Enable is working to supply ultrafast broadband to 180,000 homes, schools and businesses throughout Canterbury.

The $440 million project is expected to be completed by the end of 2018 as part of the Government’s national $1.35 billion UFB project.