Residents of two new housing estates in Orewa and near Huka Falls could be among the first to experience the true potential of fibre-to-the-home.

That's because Auckland technology veteran John Nixon has completed a two-year search for a solution that would let him deliver Sky TV and Freeview channels – as well as phone and broadband services – over fibre.

Mr Nixon says "triple-play" home fibre connections are unthinkable in New Zealand without Sky, but the company has not been very helpful in working out how they could be delivered. Sky's programming needs to be transmitted as an L-Band signal that can be decoded by a set-top box in the home.

 Kordia tried to solve the problem, but Mr Nixon says it was unsuccessful. "We really lost about six months because we had what looked like a very promising relationship with Kordia."

Equipment supplied by Israeli firm Foxcom will be used instead, which Mr Nixon and Foxcom will market to other developers. "There are are two manufacturers in the world, as far as I have been able to establish, that can do L-Band over fibre. It only took me two years to find one, but it works."

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