History

Where did it come from?

thelink was commissioned by Network Tasman Limited, an electricity lines company in the Nelson Tasman region.  thelink is the largest independent regional fibre network in New Zealand connecting Nelson, Stoke, Richmond, Brightwater, Motueka, Blenheim, Picton and Waikawa.

With the commissioning of thelink, the Top of the South has a high speed connectivity which is the envy of most other NZ communities. The fibre network enables local users to access broadband at speeds many more times faster than those offered by traditional telecommunication networks.

Network Tasman Limited (NTL) first investigated the concept of a regional fibre network in 2000 while exploring strategic opportunities for the company.  NTL adopted a strategy which envisioned building a network that would benefit NTL, the local community and the region’s schools while generating income for NTL through the lease of fibre to businesses.

In 2000 and 2001 a number of NTL executives and Directors visited comparable regional power companies in the US. At that time the US regional power companies were leading the way in the development of regional fibre networks.  The NTL representatives looked at network configuration, options and business models with the aim of developing a model that would work for the Top of the South and NTL.

How is it operated?

NTL adopted a model based on the current NZ electricity market, whereby NTL owns the network and leases space on the network to end users and telecommunication services providers but does not retail telecommunication services. “We wanted to stick with what we knew rather than enter into a business where we had little experience or expertise; and running a fibre line network requires very similar skills and knowledge to running our copper line electricity network.”

Networks similar to ours are operating in a number of other regions including Christchurch, Dunedin and Northland.

Building thelink

The fibre network that was to become 'thelink' was laid in stages. In 2005 the first stages of the project, the Nelson/Richmond link, and the Richmond/St Arnaud/Blenheim link, were completed; additions to the network in Nelson and Richmond were completed in 2006. The sections to Motueka, Picton and Waikawa were completed in late 2007.

In 2004 NTL found an anchor tenant in Telstra Clear, who now offers telecommunications services to customers over thelink. Larger local organizations who are able to provide their own equipment to light up the fibre also lease fibre on thelink.

Early in 2010 thelink began offering Layer 2 Ethernet service in addition to leasing dark fibre circuits. Our Layer 2 Ethernet product makes high speed broadband more accessible to smaller businesses who don't require the full capacity of a fibre circuit by reducing the cost of connectivity.

The list of users of thelink is diverse and includes all three Regional Councils, the NMDHB, the NMIT and the Nelson Mail as well as banks, primary producers, travel agents, IT companies, wholesalers, the 35 schools that currently make up the Top of the South LOOP, and the local “Project Probe” provider.

To date NTL has invested more than $12 million dollars in thelink.  We have commissioned over 380km of fibre cable and have connected more than 200 circuits throughout the region. A number of these sites contract directly with thelink through the lease of dark fibre whilst others are contracted with ISPs or Telstra Clear and purchase typical telco type services.