KEY POINTS:
TelstraClear is not ruling out investment in local loop unbundling or fibre infrastructure following the completion of a $29 million fibre network in the lower South Island.
The Australian-owned telco has finished work on a 950km fibre optic network running from Christchurch through to Timaru, Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown.
TelstraClear chief operating officer Kevin Millar said the company was in a much better position to invest in the South Island than previously, including potential for local loop unbundling, infrastructure partnerships with councils and further fibre networks within urban centres and new subdivisions.
"I would stress that other than what's already in, such as the Dunedin [fibre] ring, those business cases are yet to be approved but they're all things that suddenly now we can make these strategic investments," said Millar. "What for us is exciting is we have never had the potential to do that."
Millar said building its own network meant TelstraClear could reduce its reliance on leased network access and gave greater certainty in the level of service it could promise to customers.
"We really wanted to get much more into the internet protocol-based services and a lot of bigger bandwidth," said Millar. "The main thing there was if there was a disruption to service we didn't have a diverse route."
Millar said the company had previously used microwave radio links which are an older technology and don't have the capacity or reliability of a fibre ring. TelstraClear would also look to offer wholesale access to the network.
"The fibre is real, the ring is there and we're open for business and looking for more people to do business with."
Telecom completed its own fibre ring running through regional centres in the lower South Island in March last year.
