Crown Fibre open to private-sector union

The Crown-owned company that will manage the Government's $1.5 billion investment in ultra-fast broadband says it would not necessarily stand in the way of Vector, Telecom and others banding together to partner with the Government on the network roll-out - if that improved the economics of the scheme.

Telecom, Canadian company Axia NetMedia and electricity and lines and fibre companies acting under the umbrella of the Regional Fibre Group have submitted competing proposals to partner with Crown Fibre Holdings in the Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) initiative.

Vector chief executive Simon Mackenzie said he would not rule out a "coalition" but under the terms of the tender Crown Fibre Holdings would need to approve any discussions about how that might work commercially.

Crown Fibre chief executive Graham Mitchell says it would be open to giving that approval, so long as bidders could demonstrate that the economics of building the network would improve if they collaborated.

"It is a competitive process. The reason there is confidentiality is we don't want them comparing scores. But there is nothing stopping them coming to talk to us. None of them have told us that they want to do that yet."

Crown Fibre has decided not to draw up a short-list of eligible proposals by Thursday, as originally planned. It aims to pick a partner, or partners, by the end of June and complete negotiations by the end of September.

- © Fairfax NZ News