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Northpower Fibre Optic Network

Project Scope

Northpower identified the potential to bring ultra high-speed broadband to Northland. The company then developed a partnership with a major telco provider, TelstraClear, which invested $1 million in upgrading its broadband link from Whangarei to Auckland.

Northpower’s staff designed, planned and constructed a 100 km fibre optic network running through the Whangarei Central Business District alongside the overhead lines infrastructure. This method enabled the team to develop a fibre optic network at less than half the cost of a telecommunications company.

An essential part of the project was the development of processes for faults resolution, ordering, billing and operating systems and the creation of operating manuals, standards and policies..

Challenges

An essential part of the project was the development of processes for faults resolution, ordering, billing and operating systems and the creation of operating manuals, standards and policies.

Solutions

As one of New Zealand’s largest electrical contractors, with growing expertise in fibre optic technology, Northpower had the skills and experience to meet the project’s challenges in-house. By upgrading the copper cable network between Northpower’s substations and head office in Whangarei with fi bre optic cables, the team devised a simple method of using Fibre To The Premise (FTTP) technology to provide ultra high-speed broadband with upload and download speeds of over 1000 Megabits per second (Mbps).

With fibre optic cables measuring signifi cantly less in diameter than power cables, the network was added without the need to strengthen poles. The visual impact was minimal, with small, unobtrusive closure boxes and all fibre jointing tucked away out of sight.

With full triple play capability the Northpower fibre optic network is future-proof and ready for residential and commercial customers to use fast-developing communications technologies such as video streaming, voice and video calling.

Results

The resulting fibre optic network has been very well received and has been recognised as an industry leader. Its success was acknowledged by the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ), when Northpower won the TUANZ Next Generation Fibre-Optic Network Award 2009. This acknowledged the ingenuity, simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the network and the many benefits it is bringing to Northland.

FACTS AND FIGURES 

• 1000 Megabits fully symmetrical
• 100 km of fibre network built in 18 months 
• 1 of 18 companies in the NZRFG 
• 14% of businesses signed up against 10% target 
• 8 retail providers waiting in the wings

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