NZ Govt calls for NBN partners

The New Zealand Government has issued a call for participants to join its national fibre roll-out under which it's hoping to raise NZ$1.5 billion from the private sector.

New Zealand's Ministry of Economic Development issued the "invitation to participate" today. The country's plan would be to create 33 "Local Fibre Companies" to partner with for the deployments and the future provision of wholesale services.

New Zealand's Minister for Information Technology and Communications, Steven Joyce, earlier this week said the government's aim was to deploy fibre to 75 per cent of the country's population over a decade, with the first six years focused on high priority users such as businesses, schools and health services.

The "local fibre companies" would be envisaged to provide dark fibre services and would have the option to deliver wholesale layer 2 services. Layer 2 services enable retail telephony and broadband service delivery direct to customers.

New Zealand has established "Crown Fibre Holdings" as the vehicle for the commercial partnerships.

Joyce this week said he was confident the project would attract private sector investors. "Already a number of companies have shown interest in the government's broadband initiative. Now it's time to get on with finding the right partners to build these networks," he said.