CNU - Chorus

[Bobdn]

Over all the roll out has been a huge success. But of course there's always room for improvement. In my street its very tidy.

Got UFB yesterday - installation took just on two hours. And thanks to Spark my naked 100/20 plan costs just $90 per month. Three times the performance of my old plan and $5 cheaper. Weird.

How long did your install take Hog? Did you have a bad experience. Have you talked to Chorus?

[warthog]

Over all the roll out has been a huge success. But of course there's always room for improvement. In my street its very tidy.

Got UFB yesterday - installation took just on two hours. And thanks to Spark my naked 100/20 plan costs just $90 per month. Three times the performance of my old plan and $5 cheaper. Weird.

How long did your install take Hog? Did you have a bad experience. Have you talked to Chorus?

Install took a full day. Clueless installers unfortunately. Whole consenting process an utter shambles. After a while, Chorus just letter-bombed the entire street asking for blanket consent to do whatever wherever they like. Most people told them to go jump apparently.

The wholesale fibre product itself is very stable, with performance ultimately throttled/controlled by the ISP. It's just the physical install which has had the cost cut out of it, and is downright ugly and prone to future issues. Simple case of the lowest cost solutions driven by shot-term goals as opposed to just doing it right.

Example: Chorus has the right to undertake maintenance of existing overhead wires i.e. for replacing sections, etc. However, somehow, it has become an acceptable to entirely replace aerial copper with aerial fibre under this "maintenance" regime. Complete bollocks, especially where aerial trespass is concerned. The hog told Chorus if they didn't take down the neighbour's new fibre in the airspace over the hog's pen, the hog would be left with no option but to remove it for them. After pushing things as far as they could, they decided that undergrounding directly from the verge to the neighbour's property would be OK.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Some UFB customers have waited for 7-8 months and endured up to a dozen visits from clueless, wandering sub-sub-sub contractors before finally somebody with an ounce of wherewithal turns up and does the job.

[Bobdn]

I've read a few installation horror stories over on Geekzone. I was so relieved that things went smoothly for me. I remember reading last year that demand for UFB has now gone completely nuts, in a relatively short space of time, because of applications like Netflix and Lightbox. Of course, now that fibre is cheaper than copper, demand will be probably increase even more.

[Harvey Specter]

My install 92 in fact) went smoothly, the last down a conduit under our 100m long concrete drive. Not overly impressed with the box the installed inside the house (you have to pay for your own sparky if you want it installed in a nice hidden place) but overall both were very efficient.

Some people (like the Hog) will (quite rightly) be pricks about installs for others but that is par for the course. The scale of the rollout means that not everyone is going to be happy.

[warthog]

My install 92 in fact) went smoothly, the last down a conduit under our 100m long concrete drive. Not overly impressed with the box the installed inside the house (you have to pay for your own sparky if you want it installed in a nice hidden place) but overall both were very efficient.

Some people (like the Hog) will (quite rightly) be pricks about installs for others but that is par for the course. The scale of the rollout means that not everyone is going to be happy.

Nothing will be perfect Harvey Specter in the sense that almost by definition, as you note, not everybody will be happy.

However, the hog's point it that Chorus started out doing a good job, but since they (hog's reading of the situation) under-priced their Crown Fibre contract (thinking they could use their position in the market, their political lobbying and contacts to extract additional revenue down the track) and ran into opposition during the execution of this strategy, the quality of the installs (especially from the road to the dwelling) has dropped significantly. Once each install is signed off, Chorus are off the hook and will presumably be paid should any further work be required.

There was a noticeable point at which things went downhill.

[GTM 3442]

[QUOTE=Harvey Specter;605433The scale of the rollout means that not everyone is going to be happy.[/QUOTE]

Whyever not? Why should big job mean sloppy job?

[JAYAY]

Nothing will be perfect Harvey Specter in the sense that almost by definition, as you note, not everybody will be happy.

However, the hog's point it that Chorus started out doing a good job, but since they (hog's reading of the situation) under-priced their Crown Fibre contract (thinking they could use their position in the market, their political lobbying and contacts to extract additional revenue down the track) and ran into opposition during the execution of this strategy, the quality of the installs (especially from the road to the dwelling) has dropped significantly. Once each install is signed off, Chorus are off the hook and will presumably be paid should any further work be required.

There was a noticeable point at which things went downhill.

I would have thought that the final decision from comcom shows that Chorus did NOT under-price the contract but rather were victims of comcom blundering and incompetence.

[Bobdn]

Results out. Looks fine and 20 cents dividend for year is good. No catch up special dividend that I somehow convinced myself I was going to get

I'll rejoin the DRP. New Chorus chapter starts today.

[JAYAY]

Results out. Looks fine and 20 cents dividend for year is good. No catch up special dividend that I somehow convinced myself I was going to get

I'll rejoin the DRP. New Chorus chapter starts today.

20c is much better than the 13c forecast last Friday by Forsyth Barr.
I wonder what that will do to the share price.
$4 at least?

[Bjauck]

I would have thought that the final decision from comcom shows that Chorus did NOT under-price the contract but rather were victims of comcom blundering and incompetence.

...and ComCom inconsistency. Dividend rate is 5c lower than its last year before dividends ceased. However I now attach a greater risk rating to the sector CNU operates in and the regulatory environment.