TelstraClear ploughs on

By ANNE GIBSON and CHRIS BARTON

TelstraClear has applied for resource consent to start building the underground portion of its planned $1.2 billion nationwide cable TV and telecommunications network beneath Auckland City.

The proposal, lodged with the Auckland City Council, is part of TelstraClear's master plan to build New Zealand's first national full-service broadband network - the only system able to carry a full range of telephone, data, internet, mobile and cable television services direct to business and residential customers.

TelstraClear has earmarked $1.2 billion to spend during the four years it will take to install the national network, which it says will reach about 70 per cent of the country.

"A large portion of this investment will be in Auckland City and the greater Auckland region," said TelstraClear's report to the council.

When complete, the TelstraClear network would provide residential users with an alternative to Telecom phone lines, as it does in parts of Wellington and Christchurch.

The resource consent for building the network has been made to the city council because the telco wants to dig under the city's road berms and its tunnelling could have an effect on precious trees.

The council's planning fixtures subcommittee is due to hear the application on Friday and make a ruling under the Resource Management Act.

TelstraClear will lodge separate applications for the overhead portion of the network, which will be strung alongside Vector's powerlines, but says the present application "has been assessed on the basis that TelstraClear may choose to construct the entire network underground". Construction of the underground network involves the use of trenchless drilling or thrusting technology.

Spokesman Quentin Bright said the application process was likely to take some time and there was no timetable yet on when work might start if both applications were successful.

In December, the company halted work at the halfway stage of Christchurch's cable network rollout while it reassessed the project.

TelstraClear has also farmed out delivery of TV channels for its existing 26,000 cable subscribers to Sky.

In its application, TelstraClear is seeking a council ruling on whether its resource consent for the underground network can be made on a non-notified basis, citing section 94 of the Resource Management Act, which allows for applications to be processed without full public consultation when there are no adverse effects on the environment and no one is considered to be adversely affected by the consent.

The council's concern is that TelstraClear not damage trees in the city, as the work will be in the dripline of various precious trees.

After the underground application is sorted out, TelstraClear will make its resource consent application for the overhead portion of its network, the company says in the document submitted to the council, which was prepared by Beca Planning in September last year.

The proposed network for the Auckland isthmus comprises five or six fibre optic rings feeding off a high-speed backbone along the Southern Motorway.

Each high-speed ring will feed up to 50 "node" cabinets, which will in turn each feed up to 500 potential customers.

"TelstraClear proposes to establish, use and maintain a hybrid fibre optic, coaxial and copper cable telecommunications network across the Auckland City isthmus.

"The network will be constructed within the legal road boundaries of the isthmus, with the exception of customer connections, which will of necessity be constructed within private property," the telecommunications company says in its application.

"TelstraClear's general approach is to construct its network overhead where Vector's network is overhead and underground where Vector's network is underground.

"There will, however, be some exceptions to this general approach where extra undergrounding will be introduced where various physical, environmental and protocol factors - presence of transformers, need for mitigation of visual effects, etc - may prevent overhead lines."