Project implementation

After the analysis of the FRIs, a short list of 9 providers was selected to tender for the projects in fourteen regions, along with a fifteenth to be provided with broadband access by satellite. This unanticipated "region" covered those isolated rural communities throughout the country into which the delivery of wireless broadband or wireline broadband (ADSL) was impractical.

Standard contracts were prepared by a national law firm. Each tenderer was required to:

• meet service specifications and pricing for a period three years from the completion of the service installation contract
• meet specified milestones during the rollout
• conduct test service performance parameters
• establish regional partnership programmes (where required by the regions) to leverage PROBE for optimum regional outcomes, including the exploration of telecommunications infrastructure beyond the scope of PROBE
• be willing to work with the Ministry of Health to provide connections with general practitioners ("Health Link").

Although the original intention was that each project would be let by the PSG, three regions proposed and it was accepted that they should proceed in their own right - Southland, Northland and Wairarapa-Tararua. The cost of their projects was still met from the PROBE budget.

Southland had been working on broadband access for the region for some time and appeared to be more advanced in its preparation than the PROBE project team. Consequently, it was the first to let a tender, which was won by the wireless carrier, Woosh.

MED's objective of generating a competitive provincial environment for broadband was almost immediately achieved by the letting of the Woosh contract, as Telecom subsequently demonstrated a much higher degree of interest in regional telecommunications in general and broadband delivery in particular.

In the event, the rollout of the Woosh network in Southland was seriously delayed, as the company was required to obtain resource consents from scratch for its infrastructure.

WOOSH also came close to winning the contracts for Northland, Canterbury and the Wairarapa-Tararua but withdrew at the last moment, substantially because of capacity constraints. In contrast, Telecom, which took over all three of these contracts, not only had sufficient capacity but was able to move quickly as it required only incremental additions to its existing telephone infrastructure. Further, Telecom's technology was cheaper to implement, which saved the project around $4 million.

The remainder of the contracts were let by the PSG with Telecom winning all but three - Auckland, which went to Counties Power; Nelson/Tasman/Marlborough which was won by Pacific.Net; and the satellite contract, which went to ICONZ.