Telecom New Zealand is not giving up on being a part of the country's Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative. It's so confident that it has a shot that the incumbent carrier has submitted a new $972.4 million revised plan.
This new development comes after government left Telecom New Zealand out of the 'priority negotiations' process when it decided to go with a region-by-region approach versus the incumbent provider's nationwide network proposal.
Although TNZ will have to wait a few weeks to get a decision from the government, Mark Ratcliffe, the head of TNZ's Chorus division, said in a New Zealand Herald article that it has been ‘sharpening its pencil' after the government dismissed its bid in favor of three regional players. Ratcliffe added that they have "had lots of detailed discussions with [state-owned UFB management company] Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH) about where we could improve our bid."
Since Telecom New Zealand's offer includes the structural separation of its company, getting a quick decision on its bid is of the essence. Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom New Zealand said if Crown Fibre Holdings takes too long to decide it will run out of time to split up into two separate companies.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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