Enable Networks Limited, trading as Enable, is a company based in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand, that installs a

fibre broadband Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...

network in Christchurch and surrounding towns, and acts as a wholesaler for retail service providers (RSPs). It is fully owned by

Christchurch City Holdings Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL) is a wholly owned investment arm of the Christchurch City Council. The council controlled trading organisations (CCTO) own and run some of the important infrastructure in Christchurch, such as the public t ...

(CCHL), the investment arm of the

Christchurch City Council The Christchurch City Council (CCC) is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Christchurch is Phil Ma ...

History

Enable Networks was first launched in 2007 with funding from CCHL and a grant from the Ministry of Economic Development. Initially launched as Christchurch City Networks Limited (CCNL), in 2009 the company re-branded as Enable Networks and later simplified its trading name to Enable. In 2007, whether or not an area would be served by fibre broadband or not was mostly

Telecom New Zealand Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications and digital services company providing fixed-line telephone services, mobile phone services, broadband, and digital technology services (including cloud, security, digital transfor ...

's decision. As Telecom was trying to get as much out of its existing copper network and upgrades in Christchurch were uncertain, Christchurch City Council decided to set up its own fibre broadband company through its trading arm, Christchurch City Holdings. The initial outcome was a small network that served 60 schools, health providers and businesses. There were plans to double the length of the network within three years, but the National Government announced the

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 ...

initiative in 2009. Enable Networks and

Chorus Limited Chorus is New Zealand’s largest telecommunications infrastructure company. It builds and operates nationwide fibre broadband and copper telecommunication networks. It is listed on the NZX and ASX stock exchange and is in the NZX 50 Index. ...

, a Telecom subsidiary, tendered for the work. Negotiations with the government took one year and were completed in April 2011, when Enable Networks was assigned the network rollout for Christchurch,

Rangiora Rangiora is the largest town and seat of the Waimakariri District, in Canterbury Region, Canterbury, New Zealand. It is north of Christchurch, and is part of the Christchurch metropolitan area. With an estimated population of Rangiora is the ...

Kaiapoi Kaiapoi is a town in the Waimakariri District of the Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury region, in the South Island of New Zealand. The town is located approximately 17 kilometres north of central Christchurch, close to the mouth of the Waimak ...

, Woodend,

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Prebbleton Prebbleton is a small town in the Selwyn District in the Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury Region of New Zealand. It is 11 km southwest of the centre of Christchurch and about 2 km south of the outlying industrial suburb of Hornby, N ...

, and Rolleston. Enable partnered with the government's Crown Fibre Holdings on the project, with the city's cost projected to be NZ$203m, and the Crown's cost estimated to be NZ$170. The overall costs were later revised to NZ$440m, with the Crown's contribution lowered to NZ$140m, but their equity stake in Enable Networks was converted to an interest-free loan in June 2016. Enable Networks does not expect to make a profit prior to 2021. The company's first employee and CEO was Steve Fuller, who had previously been an executive manager at Telecom. Construction under the contract with the Crown started in November 2011. The 50% completion mark was hit in October 2014. In April 2015, uptake was just under 15% of the possible connections. The government's target date for the rollout was 2019, but Enable announced in October 2014 that it will deliver the network a year earlier, i.e. by 31 December 2018. In May 2018 Enable Networks completed its network build. Also completing additional areas of Kennedys Bush, Ohoka, Tuahiwi, Clearwater and Tai Tapu. Enable Networks used Transfield as its key contractor for the network build, but there were serious tensions between the companies. The contract agreement was terminated and instead, an alliance between the companies was negotiated instead. The total network length to be installed in and in 2014, the companies managed to install per day.

References

{{authority control Companies owned by municipalities of New Zealand Companies based in Christchurch