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Kiwi national broadband network rolls with Huawei

Worst kept secret confirmed

Work on New Zealand’s national fibre network is poised to start following the confirmation of Huawei as the key technology provider for the Ultrafast Fibre network.

In what has become one of the industry’s worst kept secrets, the government announced that tender winner on Friday November 4, despite many sectors if the industry knowing that Huawei has secure the contract in July.

As revealed by The Register in July, Huawei had lobbied hard and extensively to secure the contract beating competitors Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson.

Ultrafast Fibre CEO , Dr Julian Elder, says UFL, a special purpose entity created by WEL Networks to build the network for Ultrafast Broadband Ltd, selected Huawei due to their professional approach and strong performance throughout the selection process.

“Huawei’s global experience in providing solutions for open access networks is matched by a solid understanding of the local area needs of New Zealand, including its proven track record in deploying national broadband fibre networks around the world. We know they will be the best partner for this work and their technical expertise on access networks will ultimately provide customers with leading edge access technologies,” he added.

The Ultrafast Broadband network will cover Hamilton, Tauranga, Tokoroa, New Plymouth, Hawera, Wanganui, Te Awamutu and Cambridge. Huawei will supply Ultrafast Ltd (UFL) with intelligent Layer 1 Optical Distribution Network (iODN) and proven Open Access Layer 2 network solutions.

Once deployed residential and business customers can subscribe to different retail service providers and will have optical network termination units in the premises connected to the UFB network offering services such as high-speed Internet, telephony and IPTV. The network is set to deliver fibre-optic broadband to over 75 per cent of the New Zealander population within the next ten years. ®

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