This is a report on where we are up to with the internet connection.

Today I signed the agreement with Chorus to connect fibre directly to each home.  After initially quoting us $34,500, they have reduced the cost to $15,755 (Prices include GST).  On top of that cost, there will also be some extra cost from S&W as the installation was excluded from our build contract with them.

We are going ahead with this option because it is what was planned, and several people want fibre connections independent of any group connection.

There is also a shared connection option that I think we should consider.

Chorus will own the cables that are put in to each house, and they can only be used for individual connections.  If we put in a shared network while the trenches are open, we will have cables which we own, and can use to share out one or more internet connections between all the houses or all participating houses.

The main reason for doing this is so we would be able to have lower performance, lower cost internet connections.  E.g. the cheapest fibre connection you could get in your home would be about $60 per month, but a slower shared internet connection might be feasible for $10 or $20 per month.  It's also possible a shared connection would allow cheaper high performance connections as well.

I priced the conduit and cables required pretty conservatively at around $6000.  There would also be an installation cost from S&W.

If we install both network, then all houses will be able to connect to either the shared network or Chorus (or both).

I would like to see us agree to installing both at tonight's meeting.  Installing both would entail producing a design and getting it costed by S&W along with the Chorus proposal which is ready to go.

Cheers, Alex