Chorus Apologises for Fibre Delays

As streaming surges ahead in NZ, with TVNZ investing $30 million in transitioning from linear broadcasting to digital, Chorus has revealed lengthy delays in fibre installations around the country.

“Customers in Northland, Coromandel, Rotorua, Taupo, Whakatane, Marlborough, Blenheim, Balclutha, Waikouaiti, and Ranfurly are experiencing significantly longer-than-desired wait times,” the provider of NZ’s telecommunications infrastructure says.

“Some have been left waiting up to 10 weeks for their fibre installation. When fully resourced, the target lead time for a fibre installation is 15 days.”

Chorus say it urgently needs 200 technicians to get up to speed.

Here’s the media release:

Chorus still short of fibre technicians; apologises for lengthy wait times

Chorus has today said that, in partnership with its service companies, it urgently needs to recruit nearly 200 more skilled technicians to connect New Zealanders to its fibre network in a timely fashion.

The announcement comes as the company apologises to customers for having to wait too long to get a fibre connection in some towns.

Several factors have impacted the time it takes for many people to get a fibre connection. These factors include current immigration settings, the borders reopening after the pandemic, a tight job market, and multiple extreme weather events.

Customers in Northland, Coromandel, Rotorua, Taupo, Whakatane, Marlborough, Blenheim, Balclutha, Waikouaiti, and Ranfurly are experiencing significantly longer-than-desired wait times. Some have been left waiting up to ten weeks for their fibre installation. When fully resourced, the target lead time for a fibre installation is 15 days.

Despite intensive efforts over the last six months to recruit, Chorus is still about 200 technicians short, down from the more than 350 needed in October last year.

“On behalf of Chorus, I sincerely apologise to those New Zealanders who are frustrated by the wait to install their fibre broadband,” said Marcus Wofinden, Chorus’ Head of Connect Delivery.

“We’re working hard to reduce the time it takes to get customers connected to fibre, but this will take some time, and we’d ask for patience while we get this sorted.

“When you’re short of people for all the work you must do, it’s a constant balancing act.

“When we suffer a severe weather event, our priority is to restore services to those areas which have lost connectivity. Restoration is essential where there is damage to parts of the network that serve multiple customers or on which other telecommunications providers rely, such as mobile services, which are critical in civil emergencies.

“The severe weather events have meant that Chorus has redeployed technicians that would usually connect customers to its fibre network to repair the damage. When we are already short of technicians, we are continually playing catch-up.”

In the short term, Chorus is using a ‘roving workforce’ to reduce the wait time for customers by moving skilled technicians into those areas suffering the most extended wait times for short periods to install outstanding orders. Additional ‘roving’ fibre connect teams are currently concentrating on connecting customers to fibre in Northland.

Chorus’ service companies are also developing programmes to help retain staff, attract new technicians, and improve overall productivity.

For the longer term, the service companies are working with Chorus to develop vocational training schemes to encourage new entrants to become multi-skilled telecommunications technicians.

Service companies are also working to encourage back technicians who may have left the industry (or returned to their home country when residency visas were granted during the pandemic and our borders reopened).

Incentives include offering flexible full-time, part-time, and fixed-term employment contracts and running extensive training programmes.

“The most fundamental challenge remains to hire enough people across the country to meet the demands of installing thousands of new fibre connections every month,” said Mr Wofinden.

Chorus has been working with the Government to get skilled technicians on the immigration Green List. The Government approved this request late last year but is still working on the exact criteria.

“At the same time, we are competing for skilled technicians from other countries who are at the start of the rollout of their fibre networks. Increasingly these countries, like the USA, Australia and the UK, are incentivising migrant skilled technicians to relocate.”