Chorus is a provider of telecommunications infrastructure throughout

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is listed on the

NZX New Zealand's Exchange (), known commonly as the NZX, is the national stock exchange for New Zealand and a publicly owned company. NZX is the parent company of Smartshares, and Wealth Technologies. On 30 August 2020, the NZX had a total of ...

stock exchange and is in the

NZX 50 Index The S&P/NZX 50 Index is the main stock market index in New Zealand. It comprises the 50 biggest stocks by free-float market capitalisation trading on the New Zealand Stock Market (NZSX). The calculation of the free-float capitalisation excludes ...

. It is the owner of the majority of telephone lines and exchange equipment in New Zealand. It is responsible for building approximately 70% of the new fibre optic

Ultra-Fast Broadband The Ultra-Fast Broadband initiative is a New Zealand Government programme of building fibre-to-the-home networks covering 87% of the population by the end of 2022. It is a public–private partnership of the government with four companies with ...

network, and received a government subsidy of $929 million to do it. The company was split from

Telecom New Zealand Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications company providing fixed-line telephone services, a mobile phone network, internet access services, and (through its Spark Digital division) ICT services to businesses. It was know ...

in 2011, as a condition of winning the majority of the contracts for the Government's Ultra-Fast Broadband Initiative. By law, it cannot sell directly to consumers, but instead provides wholesale services to retailers.

Products

Copper

Most of the telephone infrastructure in New Zealand is owned by Chorus. , Chorus can provide ADSL service to 97.3% and VDSL2 (up to 70/10 Mbit/s) service to 62.4% of its copper phone lines. Contrary to the usual practice overseas, most connections are at full speed, instead plans differ in the amount of data included. As DSL is sensitive to distance, the closer the customer is to the equipment, the faster the connections. Chorus has implemented a fibre-to-the-node (also known as " cabinetisation") project to bring the

equipment Equipment most commonly refers to a set of tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, onl ...

closer to the user, so 91% of the lines are able to access an ADSL2+ connection of 10Mbit/s or more. The copper loop is unbundled, so operators like

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

and Vocus can install their own

at telephone exchanges and just rent the copper line from Chorus. , 130,000 (7%) lines are unbundled.

Fibre

Chorus has the task of installing the majority of the New Zealand government's

ultra-fast broadband The Ultra-Fast Broadband initiative is a New Zealand Government programme of building fibre-to-the-home networks covering 87% of the population by the end of 2022. It is a public–private partnership of the government with four companies with ...

(UFB) fibre. The Ultra-Fast Broadband: Invitation to Participate in Partner Selection Process was issued by the Ministry of Economic Development in October 2009, detailing 75% of New Zealanders to be connected over 10 years, with priority broadband users such as businesses, schools and health services to claim focus for the first six years. In April 2013 Chorus signed contracts with Visionstream and Downer worth NZ$1 billion to build its part of New Zealand's ultra-fast broadband network, after receiving a government subsidy of $929 million. Early in 2014

Transfield Services Broadspectrum, formerly known as Transfield Services, was an Australian and New Zealand company that provided infrastructure maintenance services. Formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and later owned by Ferrovial, it was the ...

signed agreements to help build the UFB network.

History

Telecom created Chorus as a separate business unit in 2008. In 2011, Chorus won most of the contracts for the UFB fibre network. A condition of the contracts is that Chorus be demerged into a separate company. This was recommended unanimously by the Telecom board of directors and approved by 99.8% of Telecom shareholders. On December 1, 2011, Chorus was formally separated from Telecom and listed on NZX. Chorus got Telecom's copper lines, cabinets, most telephone exchange buildings, DSLAMs and some fibre back-haul. Telecom retained the relationship with retail customers, the POTS telephone exchange equipment, some fibre back-haul, the shares in Southern Cross cable and the XT mobile network. On August 8, 2014, Telecom was rebranded as

Spark Spark commonly refers to: * Spark (fire), a small glowing particle or ember * Electric spark, a form of electrical discharge Spark may also refer to: Places * Spark Point, a rocky point in the South Shetland Islands People * Spark (surname) * ...

. The company is part of

New Zealand Telecommunications Forum The New Zealand Telecommunications Forum (TCF) is a pan-industry organisation which aims to encourage cooperation and develop standards for telecommunications equipment and services. Its members include 2degrees, Chorus, Spark New Zealand, Vodafo ...

References

External links

*
Chorus network upgrade map
{{S&P/ASX 200 Telecommunications companies of New Zealand Companies based in Wellington Companies listed on the New Zealand Exchange Companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange New Zealand companies established in 2011 Telecommunications companies established in 2011 Dual-listed companies