HER MAJESTY'S FIBRECrown Fibre Holdings' indicative timetable"Within a month": Preliminary bidder shortlistMarch, April: Talks with bidders on the preliminary shortlistEnd of May: Final shortlist announcedCrown Fibre Holdings has set an “i
HER MAJESTY'S FIBRE
Crown Fibre Holdings' indicative timetable
"Within a month": Preliminary bidder shortlist
March, April: Talks with bidders on the preliminary shortlist
End of May: Final shortlist announced
Crown Fibre Holdings has set an “indicative timetable” for announcing a shortlist of contenders for the government’s ultrafast broadband project.
CFH was set up last year to dish-out the $1.5 billion the government is contributing toward fibre-to-the-home (and schools and hospitals) over the next 10 years, and to select up to 33 co-investment partners.
A preliminary shortlist should be named “within a month” said chairman Simon Alley in a statement this morning.
CFH will be seeking additional information from all bidders this week in terms of eligibility criteria.
The “within a month” timetable assumes that information will be readily forthcoming.
CFH will then hold talks with bidders on the preliminary shortlist during March and April.
The “current objective” is to reach a final shortlist of bidders by the end of May.
Bids closed on January 29.
CFH said it had received bids from "18 different parties and consortia" including an unknown international fibre company.
Bidders are looking to secure one or more of the 33 Local Fibre Company regions up for grabs.
Whittling down the 18 contenders to a shortlist will mean there are more bidders than there are Local Fibre Company contracts up for grabs - but many bidders are believed to have tendered for more than one region.
The process is confidential, but Vector is known to have bid for Auckland, while CityLink owner TeamTalk has taken a tilt at the capital.
Telecom has put in two bids, one that it describes as “compliant” and one as “non-compliant”. The non-compliant bid is widely believed to be an attempt to gain some degree of control over a national public-private fibre network, or interconnection between Local Fibre Companies.
