Connecting remote communities in New Zealand

PRYSMIAN

As part of the Te Urewera Fibre Installation project, in which Prysmian is taking part, fibre has been supplied to communities and schools in the rural Te Urewera region.

Studies show that broadband brings new economic stimulus to rural areas. Broadband adoption is generally associated with lower unemployment levels and higher household incomes. The Te Urewera rollout is part of the New Zealand’s Rural Broadband Initiative 2 (RBI2) program. The country’s government expects improved internet connections to provide significant economic benefits to rural areas, while also providing access to important health and educational services. The aim is to provide high speed broadband to the largest possible number of under-served rural end users within available funding.

 

The rugged Te Urewera landscape makes access by land difficult. Aerial installation was considered the most appropriate solution. The only practical way to erect a large proportion of the cable was by helicopter. However, the power poles on which the cables were to be placed were up to 1100m apart – in a typical urban environment, this is just 40m. What’s more, poles were difficult to access as vehicle tracks were often overgrown with vegetation.

 

 

Outside the portfolio

 

The furthest community served by the new fibre cable is Ruatahuna, the heartland for the Tuhoe Iwi (tribe). The telephone service here, prior to this optical fibre installation, was an old multi-access radio system, known to periodically go off-line over long cloudy winters.

 

The project demanded cabling outside the regular product portfolio. “Prysmian New Zealand sourced products and solutions within the Prysmian Group network. Long Span All Dielectric Self-Supporting (ADSS) cable from our Spanish affiliate allowed the suspension of cables for spans over 1000m. Our team was also able to offer on-the-spot advice when customers were dealing with unexpected issues during installation. The teamwork of all parties involved has ensured access to broadband for multiple communities in the Te Urewera area. Prysmian Group is proud to have played a key role.”

 

 

Making the difference

 

“According to one respondent from St. Hilda’s school, e-learning has provided the opportunity to give students more options in terms of how they take an idea, develop it, create works, analyse them, clarify them and produce a finished product”, says Roger Peryer, National Business Manager at Prysmian, New Zealand. “They claim that students have more independence and aren’t restricted in terms of being able to use their laptops. The school has remarked that there’s more time for teacher-student interaction. Ultrafast broadband has made that difference.”

New Zealand’s ultra-fast broadband plan

The New Zealand Government’s ultra-fast broadband initiatives (UFB, UFB2, RBI and RBI2) aim to provide more than 85% of the population with access to ultra-fast broadband by 2024.

In order to achieve this they are investing in excess of NZ$1.5 billion - more than € 900 million.

Crown Fibre Holdings Ltd (CFH), the Agency established by the Government to manage the investment, has contracted with four parties. These four parties are known as the Local Fibre Companies (LFCs) and include Chorus Ltd. Chorus is working closely with Prysmian utilising the benefits of BendBrightXS, bend-insensitive optical fibre within the cables being deployed for these projects.

Chorus has also worked together with Prysmian to develop additional innovative cable designs, including a new composite cable that offers significant benefits in the last few metres of the network inside the buildings.

Fundamental enabler

Alcatel Lucent’s Bell Labs forecasts that Ultra-Fast Broadband could deliver $32.8 billion in economic benefits to New Zealand over 20 years, based on better outcomes for the agricultural, health, education and business sectors. Alcatel Lucent’s ‘Building the Benefits of Broadband’ report analyses the economic impact of UFB and RBI on New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP). Fibre infrastructure is a fundamental enabler, assuming 40% uptake of UFB in 6.4 years. However New Zealand also needs to see a high level of application and service adoption to capture the economic opportunities.

 

Greater use of the internet by New Zealand businesses could generate $34 billion in productivity gains, with web-savvy businesses six percent more productive than their peers, according to Sapere Research Group, which researched the value of internet use for New Zealand businesses outside of the technology sector. Comparing the results of a Statistics New Zealand survey with the actual financial performance of 5,589 firms, Sapre found that companies that make more extensive use of the internet are generally six percent more productive than the average firm in their industry. The study then modelled the potential impact of low internet use firms becoming more like their more internet-intensive peers and found it could generate an additional $34 billion in productivity gains.

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The state-of-the-art fibre optic cable facility in Durango is expected to make the Mexican plant Prysmian’s second largest manufacturing facility worldwide. Initial investment in machinery and buildings is approximately US$ 10.5 m. On completion, the plant will be capable of producing two millions kilometres of fibre a year. “The new plant will allow us to double the production of telecommunications products that are in high demand in Mexico and Central America”, said Hakan Ozmen, CEO Prysmian North America. “This milestone brings Prysmian NA to a new level of competitiveness and production capacity.”

 

The upgraded facility is crucial to addressing the growing need for broadband and telecommunications solutions in Mexico and Central America, which is growing by 20 percent each year, explains Juan Alberto Olivares, Prysmian Group’s Technical Market Director for Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. “Within two years, we expect to nearly double our regional market share in Mexico and Central America - which are a single market for the Group - and reach a share of 11 percent.”  “We have all the raw materials needed for this facility here in Mexico. We can produce cables locally, supplying optic cable faster than ever before; and we will be able to quickly react to the needs of the market and of prospects and existing customers.”

 

The Mexican telecom market is experiencing continuous growth as a result of deregulation, increased demand for broadband services and Government policy to connect houses. The Central American market is also growing very fast driven by the needs of better broadband networks. “Mexico and Central America offer considerable scope for development in all telecom sectors in the near future, with broadband internet subscribers constantly growing in the next years”, states Toni Bosch, VP Telecom Solutions, Prysmian Group. Investments in this area are key to helping preparing Prysmian to accommodate the consequent increase in demand and support customers in the region.

 

 

Great Place to Work

 

Prysmian Group’s Mexican affiliate also recently earned ‘Great Place to Work’ certification. The institute that gives out these annual awards emphasised the fact that Prysmian has worked on employee technical and managerial training. The transparency and quality of organizational communications, support to the personal and professional lives of workers and healthy relationships among colleagues were also mentioned.

 

Juan Olivares: “We have both global and local training development programs and cares about the environment and customer satisfaction. In addition, we have several social responsibility actions in place. All these initiatives have been evaluated positively, allowing us to obtain this important certification. This award is an acknowledgment of how well we have done until now, and a stimulus for all of us to continue on this path.”

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All rights reserved.