Big cables threaten to criss-cross city

By BERNARD ORSMAN

A spiderweb of overhead black cables, some as thick as the inside of a toilet roll, will radiate out from the industrial heartland at Penrose and into the leafy suburbs over the Auckland isthmus under a proposal by TelstraClear.

The plan by the communications giant will bring high-speed internet, cable television and telephone services to Auckland and Manukau City homes to compete with Telecom.

But it will also mean new overhead cables on industrial and residential streets at a time when power lines company Vector is planning to put its own wires underground.

TelstraClear has applied for resource consent in four areas of Auckland City. Applications will follow in seven other areas of the city and in Manukau City, covering Mangere and Otara.

In the first two areas, submissions have closed. Area one, which covers about 10,000 homes in the industrial heartland of Te Papapa, Southdown, Westfield and Otahuhu, received 65 submissions. Area two, which covers about 14,500 homes in Ellerslie and Mt Wellington, had received 336 submissions before the deadline of midnight last night.

The closing date for submissions for area four, covering 7500 homes in Tamaki, Panmure, and the eastern part of Mt Wellington, is next Wednesday. Submissions for area three covering 18,500 homes in Oranga, One Tree Hill, Royal Oak and Onehunga, close on April 17.

Victoria Carter, a city councillor who lives near One Tree Hill, has started a campaign to oppose the overhead cables and to encourage people to object to the resource consents.

"Don't complain after you start to see these ugly cables hanging from power lines. Lodge your concerns to council about the visual pollution that is about to destroy our urban landscape with big black cables hanging off power poles."

Victoria Carter said people should not be put off by the fact they do not live in affected areas - their street could be next.

Rosemary Howard, brought in from Telstra's marketing division in Australia to lead the merger of TelstraSaturn and Clear four months ago, yesterday said it was vital for the company to gain access to Auckland's 1.1 million customers.

It had spent $260 million creating its network in Wellington and was on track for a $200 million installation in Christchurch.

"We absolutely respect the community's right to comment and tell us where and where not aerial cabling is an option."

She said people should look to Christchurch, rather than Wellington, as the model for Auckland.

In Wellington, bundles of up to 10 cables have blighted the landscape, but most of the Christchurch network is two and three cable bundles.

The company says putting the network underground would cost about five times as much.

"It is simply a question of the economics of aerial versus undergrounding." The Auckland City Council granted approval to TelstraClear in January to put its network underground in the city.

The company plans to go overhead where power lines are overhead and underground where power lines are underground. The exception will be "environmentally sensitive" areas identified by TelstraClear and the community where the company will reduce the size of the cable or go underground.

In areas where TelstraClear has installed its network it has undercut Telecom's monthly telephone rentals charges by $20. Telecom has responded by cutting its charges by $10.

A similar price war exists for cable television and internet access.

Rosemary Howard and the company's resource consent manager, Selwyn Blackmore, could not say when work could start on an overhead network in Auckland or when the first services would be available in Auckland.

First it has to resolve a legal dispute with Vector, the local power lines company which plans to put all its lines underground.

The company claims it has access to Vector's power poles under a deal signed between Vector's predecessor, Mercury Energy, and TelstraClear's predecessor, Saturn, in 1996.

Vector says the deal is off because of an escape clause in the contract in the event of Saturn changing hands. TelstraClear is off to court in July to get the contract enforced.

It has also started negotiating a pole attachment agreement with the power lines company UnitedNetworks so that at some time in the future it can extend its network to the North Shore and Waitakere.

To participate:

Auckland City Council on 379-2020 for a pamphlet and submission form.

TelstraClear on 0800 936389.

To express your opinion:
Letters to the Editor, Cable City
New Zealand Herald, PO Box 32, Auckland
fax (09) 373-6421
email newsdesk@nzherald.co.nz