High-speed data link

By PETER GRIFFIN

Fibre network operator UnitedNetworks hopes to shake up the sluggish market for broadband access when it launches a new high-speed data service today.

The listed power utility company turned broadband wholesaler is offering a data link between the Auckland and Wellington central business districts with time-based discounts of up to 70 per cent on similar services offered by Telecom and TelstraClear.

UnitedNetworks communications general manager Sean McDonald said the InterMetro VT (variable time) service would allow companies to buy high-speed capacity for brief periods during the day, switching to lower-cost services for the majority of the time.

It was aimed at companies transferring files and backing up information to central servers and data centres in the early hours when they could take advantage of off-peak rates.

"It allows a company for an hour or two to 'burst' its pipes up to 10 or 30Mbps [megabits per second] and then drop it back to 1Mbps for those other times."

The service is offered through UnitedNetworks resellers such as internet providers Ihug, Iconz and AT&T.

UnitedNetworks laid fibre-optic cables in central Auckland and Wellington using gas pipes it acquired from Orion. But with broadband prices slow to drop and a lack of compelling uses for high-speed internet, just a fraction of the network's capacity is being used.

McDonald said that as with the underused Southern Cross Cable - a high-capacity link with Australia and Hawaii half-owned by Telecom - high prices were holding back growth in broadband use. Services like InterMetro VT would help to change that.

United is using the fibre cables of Broadcast Communications (BCL), TVNZ's transmission arm to link its own networks in Auckland and Wellington.

BCL, the dark horse of the telecoms sector, has a dual-fibre network running from Auckland to Christchurch with a further link extending to Dunedin.

BCL spokeswoman Sue Hamilton said the company had paid Clear Communications $30.5 million in 2000 to extract itself from a restrictive non-compete contract dating back to Clear's creation.

The contract had prevented BCL from carrying telecoms traffic over part of its network but the company began eyeing that very market after a change in strategy.