Northpower Selects Ericsson to Deliver Ultra-Fast Broadband in New Zealand

WHANGAREI, NEW ZEALAND - Northpower signed an agreement with Ericsson New Zealand for GPON technology for the Northpower Fibre Ultra-Fast Broadband network in Whangarei.

The Northpower Fibre network will be one of the first commercially available networks developed under the Government’s UFB initiative. It is part of the government’s plan to deliver ultrafast broadband to three-quarters of the country's population by 2019. The network will deliver initial speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 50 Mbps upstream to end users.

Services delivered by the network will range from health care and education through interactive TV, real-time business communications through video and other data-rich professional services.

“Northpower is the overall contractor to Northpower Fibre and is responsible for delivering this Ultra-Fast Broadband network design and build in Whangarei,” said Northpower General Manager Network Graham Dawson. “With this in mind, Northpower has selected Ericsson for the provisioning of the GPON component of the Layer-2 services, as we see this as the most effective solution for meeting Northpower Fibre’s contractual obligations with our Government to complete this network by June 2014. Northpower values the expertise that Ericsson brings to this partnership, and we believe Ericsson’s technology offering is the best fit for powering the GPON aspects of the network electronics.”