Enable on track for fast cable rollout
Broadband fibre cable company Enable Networks is ahead of schedule with its rollout as it moves up the hillside suburbs of Christchurch.
The fibre cable now passes by 150,000 premises with 50,000 of them connected.
The Christchurch City Councilowned company expects to complete the work a year earlier by the end of 2018, chief executive Steve Fuller said.
The uptake leaves plenty of marketing opportunity for the telecommunications companies that use Enable’s fibre network.
Businesses with large broadband capacity requirements such as Orly Productions were enthusiastic after signing up with service providers using Enable’s broadband fibre cable.
Orly Productions makes promotional videos, advertisements and animations for customers in New Zealand and overseas.
Orly’s owner, Ross Beck, said his company moved huge data files containing videos that used to take half an hour or more to deliver to clients. ‘‘Sometimes we used to put the files on a portable hard drive and courier it, which would take three days.’’
With fibre connection the upload can take less than a minute, Beck said.
‘‘People at the other end often have their own issues. We were recently sending files to clients in San Francisco and Sydney and waiting for their reply because they don’t have fast fibre broadband. So Kiwis really are ahead of the game in many ways,’’ Beck said.
Work is under way in suburbs such as Cashmere, where Enable was using narrow cutting technology to minimise disruption, Fuller said.
Fuller had received favourable comments from people attending a recent home show in Christchurch who said they wouldn’t buy a home without fibre cable.
Enable’s main competition comes from Vodafone’s recently upgraded FibreX product, which is delivered via its own cable installed several years ago and is available in Christchurch’s central city and surrounding suburbs, as well as in Kapiti and Wellington.
Vodafone is also one of several service providers in areas covered by Enable’s fibre network.
Each company delivering broadband services offers different packages depending on customer requirements, which may make it difficult to compare them.
A company called Broadband Compare has information on its website about different packages to suit users.
Rival Vodafone spent $22 million late last year upgrading its FibreX network with a sweetener $100 credit if connection was not carried out within three days.
Vodafone New Zealand spokeswoman Elissa Downey said the upgrade allowed the cable to carry vastly more data than was the case previously.
It allowed families to stream video content, browse the internet and download big files simultaneously and without delays, she said.
"Kiwis really are ahead of the game in many ways [on fibre broadband]." Orly Productions owner Ross Beck