Ralph Chivers - the one-time architect of Telecom’s operation separation, and current head of the Telecomunications Carriers Forum - will return to the MED to drive the government’s $1.5 billion crown fibre initiative. Call him our new boss of broadband.

King Ralph
In his new role as programme manager for the government's broadband investment initiative, Mr Chivers will oversee the establishment of the Crown Fibre Investment Company (CFIC), and engage with potential “investors and builders” as the CFIC selects partners to form up to 25 local fibre companies (LFCs) and co-invests $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds.

Chivers, regal
Mr Chivers is currently the chief executive of the Telecommunications Carriers Forum (TCF), where he’s gained a reputation as an effective, neutral manager who has navigated a sometimes factious posse of members (including Telecom, TelstraClear and Vodafone) through technical issues, and policy debates like S92.

Before joining the TCF, Mr Chives was a Chief Advisor at the MED, charged with managing the nine-month project to operationally separate Telecom.

In his new role, Mr Chivers will also head an MED team with high-level policy input, and “putting in place everything that needs to happen” and says he will be “making sure that decisions get made”.

While the government’s high-level goal is clear - to get ultrafast broadband to 75% of homes within 10 years - Mr Chivers says “layers still have to be peeled off the onion to make it clear how the policy will work”.

Communications and IT minister Steven Joyce says issues identified during the submission process include whether local fibre companies should provide a layer two service (that is, more friendly to multiple providers) as well as dark fibre. Mr Chivers says the need to clarify how competition will work among retail and wholesale providers was another recurrent theme.

Before his time at the TCF and his first tour of duty with the MED, Mr Chivers has held a number of roles in the industry, including a senior management regulatory role at Telecom, and a mobile management role at its Australian division AAPT. Mr Chivers also had an early stint at the Ministry of Commerce as a radiocommunications engineer. And before that, Mr Chivers was a teacher at Otago Boys High School, proving useful experience for referring at times childish spats in the world of telecommunications he was later to encounter.

Mr Chivers says his current role heading the Telecommunications Carriers Forum positions him well to drive the crown fibre project. The TCF is a broad church, taking in both traditional telcos (Telecom, TelstraClear, Two Degrees, Vodafone), the lines company Vector, power company TrustPower, infrastructure player Kordia, fibre specialist FX networks, and broadband/telco crossover players like CallPlus, WorldXChange and Woosh.

Mr Chivers will join the MED from June 8. The TCF will meet next week to begin discussions on a replacement chief executive.