New Zealand law firms are busily preparing for the John Key government's proposed fibre initiative.
 
The move will see the fibre optic cable rolled out to 75% of Kiwi residents at a cost of about NZ$1.5bn (A$1.2bn) and follows a similar public private partnership model that the Australian Federal Government had initially adopted in its National Broadband Network, before scrapping it for a government-owned enterprise plan.

Kensington Swan partner Ross Johnston believes that the initiative will create a range of work opportunities for firms. "The various suppliers will need transactional advice, the public and private sectors will need legal advice on their investments. Apart from purely involving traditional telco clients, there is an opportunity for power line companies to get involved as well," he said.

ALB has learnt that Chapman Tripp's Mark Reese and Andy Nicholls are acting for New Zealand Telecom, MGF Webb's Malcolm Webb is advising Vodafone and the Kiwi Ministry of Economic Development (MED) is using in-house lead lawyers Gaye Searancke and Chris Mathieson. However, it is unclear as to whether Buddle Findlay's Philip Wood will advise Vector, or Bell Gully's Dean Oppenhuis or Simon Watt will act for TelstraClear. No external law firms are currently advising the MED, but firms may still have a chance to participate. "Most of the legal work is currently being done by internal government lawyers and Crown Law. There is a chance we may need to prepare complex agreements and establish entities for the initiative. It's quite possible that we will need some ongoing external legal advice," said the initiative's newly appointed programme manager Ralph Chivers.

Kiwi technology, media & telecommunication (TMT) practices are likely to scramble for a role in the fibre initiative, because the global financial crisis has placed greater strain on firms.  Johnston said that there are fewer NZ$100m (A$79m) TMT deals.  "Lawyers tend to be instructed to advise on projects involving changes to existing systems rather than outright system replacement.  IT managers have less to spend and transactions need to deliver value in driving down costs," he said.

For now, Johnston expect to see demand for advice on cost efficiency strategies and cost saving technologies, such as remote application hosting. "I have recently advised a large educational institution on the implementation of a student management system that is remotely hosted via the internet - it's a growing trend," he said.