Regional fibre alliance appoints CEO

The New Zealand Regional Fibre Group has appointed a chief executive to spearhead its bid to become to the government's partner in the $1.5 billion Ultra Fast Broadband initiative.

The group has today announced the appointment of Vaughan Baker to lead the alliance of lines companies and metropolitan based fibre providers. Baker previously worked for consultancy firm Voco, where his profile still exists on the company’s website and where he is described as a lawyer with accounting qualifications: “Vaughan has over 10 years experience in the ICT arena, having focused much of this time on commercial management and implementation aspects of large scale IT and telecommunications outsourcing engagements involving implementation of comprehensive service management models,” the bio on the Voco website reads.

Baker’s appointment comes a year to the day since the NZRFG was formed. “The NZRFG has grown quickly over the past year and now has broad coverage throughout New Zealand, along with collective strength and technical knowledge that delivers a strong national proposition. We started with ten members in April last year and now stand at 19. Three are specialist fibre companies but eight others are building fibre networks also and some have been involved in fibre for a long time - CityLink and Vector for over 10 years now,” he says.

The latest regional fibre deployment was announced today by UnisonFibre in the Hawke’s Bay.

Baker says the NZRFG has achieved a number of milestones the past year, including Northpower’s first residential fibre to the door build and Electricity Ashburton’s 240km undergrounding project to connect farmers and town-based businesses. He also points to the completion of a three year expansion of the Velocity Network in Hamilton, connecting education, health and business sites and the culmination of a two year Auckland-wide fibre network expansion by Vector.

NZRFG members have also been active in expanding a number of fibre loops for schools and working with the National Education Network along the way.