BCL posts $12m profit a year after rejig

Broadcast Communications Ltd has reported a $12 million after-tax profit in its first year of operation as a standalone company.

BCL has also upgraded its digital microwave relay link to Hawkes Bay, the last big region not to be connected to Telecom's fibre network.

BCL's parent company, the Transmission Holdings Ltd Group, was spun off from TVNZ to form its own state-owned enterprise in September last year.

The THL Group incorporates both BCL and THL in Australia.

In its first annual report, released to Parliament yesterday, the group reported a net surplus after tax of $12.5 million across both companies. Revenue was $124 million for the year.

Chairman Wayne Brown said the result was largely because of "growth in traditional broadcast services", although he did note that the diversification into other areas, such as broadband telecommunications, was also returning a healthy amount.

BCL's microwave upgrade means Napier and Gisborne both have more telecommunications redundancy built in.

EC Internet Solutions managing director Russell Holland says the region is one of the last without its own fibre backhaul link, making it vulnerable to outages.

"You only need to cut two lines and basically the entire region is cut off from voice and data services."

Holland, whose company is based in Gisborne, said having increased capacity was good for the region and for companies such as his.

BCL has spent close to $1 million in the upgrade, investing in several 155 Mbps (megabits per second) digital microwave radio bearers and associated equipment.

Managing director Geoff Lawson said each bearer could carry the equivalent of 4000 simultaneous phone calls and the new infrastructure would help telcos such as TelstraClear to provide a more stable communications platform to and from the region.