New fibre cables in rural communities in N. Zealand
Prysmian Group supported the Te Urewera Fibre Installation project, which forms part of the New Zealand Government Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) School program in order to supply fibres to 3 rural schools and more communities in the Te Urewera area.
For the project, Prysmian New Zealand sourced products and solutions within the Prysmian Group network, to help overcome numerous infrastructure and installation challenges to modernise the communication systems in the remote Te Urewera area. Prysmian Group used their strengths as a global supplier in sourcing cabling which would rise to the challenge and provided the customer with Long Span All Dielectric Self-Supporting (ADSS) cable from our Spanish affiliate which allowed for 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.
It was decided that an aerial installation would be best suited for the environment and therefore the only practical way to erect the cable on nearly all of the power lines was by helicopter because the Te Urewera landscape’s access by land was difficult.
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 periodically went off-line over long cloudy winters and made the supply of broadband impossible.
Prysmian Group is proud to have played a key role in the Te Urewera project. It is illustrative of the Prysmian Group’s commitment to connecting communities through our state-of-the-art technology and worldwide reach by ensuring access to broadband for multiple communities in the Te Urewera area.
