Today Telecom’s shareholders voted to demerge Chorus.

99.8% of votes cast by Telecom’s shareholders were voted in favour of the demerger proposal, which was unanimously supported by the Telecom board.

We will now finalise the legal process to separate Chorus, our fixed line access infrastructure business, to enable Chorus to take a leading role in the Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB) initiative.

Following the demerger, “New Chorus” will be a stand-alone, separately listed company, allowing it to be the Crown’s partner for approximately 70% of the Ultra-fast Broadband initiative. Further information is available in the Telecom media statement - click here.

With the rollout of UFB across regional and metro New Zealand, more and more businesses are looking for ICT solutions that harness fibre speeds to increase productivity, improve their flexibility and robustness, and cut costs.

UFB provides an exciting new opportunity for our clients, and the real challenge now facing the ICT industry and business is how we turn this fibre infrastructure into economic return.

We have been planning for this outcome, and there will be no disruption to the delivery of current services our clients rely on to run their businesses.

We already offer a wide range of fibre-based products and look forward to discussing the options available to you as we move quickly to deliver hosted and integrated solutions that align with the new fibre capacity and coverage.

Most corporate locations will be covered by fibre by 2014 and we expect strong uptake to continue. We believe that a significant proportion of client networks will migrate to fibre connections in the next two years.

Chorus is expanding access to its existing business fibre areas for UFB services at significantly reduced prices and offering a wider range of services. That is making fibre more affordable and available, and provides us with a greater range of options for our clients.

However, UFB provides “access” and our clients are relying on us to determine the best options for them and build the services that enable the gains from UFB. With several fibre providers across the country, there is potential for network fragmentation and complexity for businesses wanting to take advantage of new options available.

Our clients are relying on us to provide robust and resilient hybrid networks that integrate fibre, copper and mobile, as well as managing services from the multiple fibre providers.

They are looking to us to provide the exciting applications and services that leverage this new fibre world, in areas such as videoconferencing and collaboration, cloud computing, remote working and business continuity.

Our clients also want assurance that their infrastructure is kept secure and robust by a local service provider, who can take accountability for the outcomes right here in New Zealand, and with priorities driven by this market.

We’ll continue to prioritise and fast-track our delivery of new fibre-based products and services that address the key business issues our clients face, deliver real outcomes and create economic value for the country.

As Chorus and the LFCs create and publish their product roadmaps, we’ll work closely with them develop and launch new UFB services in the announced deployment areas.

We are excited to be able to play such a significant role in delivering New Zealand’s fibre future.