UnisonFibre chooses Alcatel-Lucent for fibre optic network

UnisonFibre has chosen Alcatel-Lucent to provide equipment for its fibre optic broadband network in Hawke's Bay, Rotorua and Taupo.

By the end of this month UnisonFibre -- the telecommunications business of lines company Unison Network -- expects to have 130km of operational fibre in place.

UnisonFibre sales and marketing manager Wayne Baird said the company was focusing on connecting such users as businesses, schools and health providers.

Its fibre network would enable connections ranging in speed from 10 Megabits per second (Mbps) to 1 Gigabit per second (1000 Mbps).

The Government, which plans to invest up to $1.5 billion on ultra-fast broadband development, defines ultra-fast broadband as fibre-to-the-premises providing downlink speeds of at least 100 Mbps.

UnisonFibre is part of the Central Fibre Consortium short-listed by Crown Fibre Holdings to continue in a partner selection process under the Government's UFB initiative.

Mr Baird said the development of UnisonFibre's fibre optic network was completely separate from the Government project.

"This is business as usual. This is what UnisonFibre is doing as an entity that exists at the moment," Mr Baird said.

UnisonFibre was providing an open access network, that had initially followed a route that linked up Unison Network's electricity assets. That had taken the fibre network into most of the commercial areas where the parent company operated.

UnisonFibre had been trialling Alcatel-Lucent's gear that "lights the fibre and provides the smarts to the network", and had now entered a formal arrangement with Alcatel-Lucent.

The value of the deal was commercially sensitive and would not be made public, Mr Baird said.

"This network and equipment we are putting in with Alcatel-Lucent will enable us to expand to whatever size we want or need to."

That could include fibre-to-the-home, but the company had yet to do large amounts of marketing in that area.

Businesses were already telling him that having ultra-fast broadband services made a huge difference to their activities, with the fibre optic network also seen as removing a barrier that had prevented some businesses moving into regional areas.