Tuatahi First Fibre: Network Update#

Murray Pearson

• Why: A live production vendor transition (legacy Huawei GPON → Adtran architecture) at regional scale, plus a 100G handover product on the new platform — and it includes an actual failure story (multicast replication during the Whanganui cutover), which is exactly what an operator program should surface.
• What: A Project Manawanui progress update: aggregation migration complete, staged regional access cutovers underway (Whanganui done, New Plymouth next), OLT replacement, large-scale service migration, TCFL aggregation modernisation with new handover points (Napier, Hastings, Rotorua), and 100G NNI migrations — with lessons learned including the multicast replication issue (from abstract only).
• How: Staged regional cutover sequencing, OLT replacement with service continuity across a live network, and integration into updated operational systems.
• Where applicable: NZ fibre-operator-specific in its topology and regulatory context, but the migration-sequencing and multicast-replication lessons transfer to any GPON/XGS-PON operator doing vendor transition or scaling aggregation to 100G.