Chorus is the infrastructure division of Telecom New Zealand, and is likely to be spun off in to its own company in the near future. Chorus maintains physical plant like copper and fibre optic cables, buildings, and cabinets.
A cabinet is typically a metal enclosure mounted on a concrete plinth which aggregates copper lines from an area called a sub-loop. Inside the cabinet is a copper distribution frame, and some active equipment. Installing a cabinet helps shorten the length of the copper between an end user and an Exchange building, by bringing some equipment from the exchange closer to the end users. Active equipment inside the cabinet can be a basic TDM multiplexer, allowing 30 analogue voice circuits to be transited across a single pair of copper as E1, or an advanced ISAM, or Intelligent Services Access Manager – a device allowing voice and xDSL services across sub-loop circuits.
Backhaul from the cabinet can be copper, fibre, or radio, with TDM or Ethernet services on top, allowing speeds from 2mbps through to multiples of 1000mbps. Most copper and radio fed cabinets at this time do not allow for modern xDSL services, although some are equipped with ADSL1.
In the map below, dots represent all of the Chorus cabinets across New Zealand, as of the most recent data publication in November 2010.
- Green dots represent modern generation cabinets such as the Eaton Whisper – these cabinets are capable of supporting Telecom ADSL2+ or VDSL2+, and often have room to host other service providers, such as Vodafone or Orcon
- Yellow dots represent cabinets that may not be the latest generation, but are on the current upgrade list.
- Blue dots represent legacy cabinets or small buildings that may or may not be able to support ADSL of some form.
- Red dots represent legacy cabinets that are not able to support broadband at all – typically due to their size, technology, or backhaul.
Click on the dots to find out more about an individual cabinet.