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Comment by rdl | Hacker News Reader

Is this why they killed Pacific Fibre?

I think the official line is that having investment from both China and the US was considered a dealbreaker by the US side, and since the US wouldn't fund it completely, the deal couldn't go through. Guess this explains why.

I'm a resident but not anyone important, so clarifications welcome

China investment meant a preference for Chinese equipment/vendors, which in turn would mean getting a landing in the USA would be very hard, essentially impossible.

The primary contract was signed with a US vendor, TE Subcom (actually HQ is in Switzerland for tax reasons), and whether the Chinese vendor could even do the job aside even from landing rights was a big question.

Funding from any source never amounted to enough to get it away. Which is a shame as the business case was - and still is - compelling.

Source: me - a Pacific Fibre founder

I still don't understand what legal justification the US has for making it hard to get landing rights in the USA just because you use Chinese equipment.

If I ever have a spare $300mm or so, I know what I'm funding.

If there weren't any existing, it could make some. There are some very protectionist policies in the US and if you have the lobbying power you can get even more. That said, how many local industries aren't protected by their country's government? Some protection is good, but finding the balance can be a little tricky.

Because the US knows what's possible? They know how much they can tap the cable, and if the cable had Chines equipment, they'd be tapping it similarly too?

Thanks for commenting. It's good people like you are trying in NZ. I have mentioned to various ISPs in NZ that if they can provide a connection of any speed that is reasonable, I'll pay lots for it. Even 10Mb would have me pay probably 3x what we pay now. No ISP that I have found will provide a connection north of about 3-5Mb. 4 different properties all in Auckland. The business centre of the country has things this bad and I can help improve it as far as I can tell.

NZ internet isn't quite google fiber, but it's gotten a lot better recently with VDSL2 and residential UFB. Are you looking for a business line with dedicated / 99th percentile bandwidth, or a residential connection?

At least Snap and Telecom offer VDSL2 (and surely everyone else must be about to start), I get a constant 40/10 with a good-sized cap for a reasonable price in my small Christchurch suburb.

Slingshot offer a passable unmetered ADSL2+ pretty cheaply if that's your poison. Telstra's 100mbit cable service is also reasonably cheap and worth considering if you're in a supported area.

Residential. I'd take a tenth that speed in a heartbeat. No provider can provide anything better than crap anywhere I have ever lived. The lines on the street have always been too rubbish to support anything good. I know people who get about 10Mb but have never knowingly met an Aucklander who gets more than that currently I max out at about 3. It's so very bad.

I get 10-12mbit pretty consistently on unmetered ADSL2, and did at the last two places I lived as well. The couple of people I know with VDSL get 30-40mbit. A couple of others with UFB get the full 100mbit. Perhaps you're just really unlucky. This is all across auckland with telecom, vodafone, slingslot, orcon.

I'm in Auckland and consistently get upwards of the speeds you mention (15-20 Mbps Telecom).

This might be a good time to ask. I'm currently with a Vodafone fixed line. 1Mb would be the best I get on a good day and those are hard to come by. We're a small little business so we can't afford anything too exorbitant. Auckland based. I have a residential line with Slingshot and not a fan. How's your interactions with Snap and Telecom support?

I'm just a consumer, i can't answer the question definitively. My VDSL's with Snap, haven't needed to call them at all except when i was setting the router up for the first time. They have a couple APIs and respected my right to disable the "support account" (backdoor) in the supplied AVM router, which was cool.

The internet at 'the office is a zero-rated relationship with a datacenter my parent company partners with, so i can't comment on that.

I don't know if this is the place for specific recommendations, you might find more opinions on say geekzone.co.nz.

It's a pleasure to get a direct response from the source.

Thank you, for all the work you put in to get the project as far as it did.

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