Christchurch based engineering firm, Shape NZ Limited has won a contract with Huawei to provide locally designed and built roadside cabinets as part of Enable’s fibre broadband network roll-out across greater Christchurch. The cabinet has also been identified by Huawei, Enable’s network technology partner, as an exceptional product which can be promoted across the technology giant’s global customer network.

Enable requires approximately 700 roadside cabinets over the next few years as it completes the deployment of fibre broadband to 180,000 homes and businesses. The contract to provide these cabinets is worth several hundred thousand dollars to Shape.

“Enable is constantly looking to innovate in how we roll out our fibre broadband network and we saw an opportunity to create a new cabinet that was easy to install, easy to work within and smaller – meaning it has less visual impact,” said Enable CEO, Steve Fuller.

“As a Christchurch focused company, we used our own in-house expertise and looked for a local partner to work with to design a cabinet and Shape leapt at the opportunity to work with us and design something that met our specific needs and environment. The resulting design is outstanding and has more than met our expectations in the field.”

“Shape is a niche manufacturer and is rapidly gaining a strong reputation for quality and innovation within the telecommunications’ industry,” said Shape Business Development Manager, Nick Cairns. “Winning a significant contract as part of such an important infrastructure roll-out is something we are very excited about.” 

Enable and Shape agreed the best way to introduce the cabinet to the project was to introduce Shape to Huawei. This would allow Enable to continue to source its cabinets within its agreement with Huawei, but more importantly open a door for Shape to access global markets through Huawei.

Huawei New Zealand CEO Jason Wu said Shape’s collaborative design process, which encouraged input from Enable and Huawei, had led to a unique, tailored product which could be easily adopted by other network builders.

“This is a great example of how partnering with local companies can lead to exciting innovations. There is now a fantastic new product which will boost the ultra-fast broadband roll out here in New Zealand and it will also help Huawei when bidding for new projects in overseas markets. Huawei operates in more than 170 countries and we are very happy to be in a position to promote Shape to our partners around the world.” 

The first major bid incorporating the Shape cabinet outside of New Zealand is expected later this year.