Pacific Fibre plan failure may put off others

It's thought the decision to pull the plug on Pacific Fibre's internet cable plans will put off other New Zealanders from trying the same.

The proposal to build an internet cable linking New Zealand, Australia and the United States, which was driven by entrepreneurs Sam Morgan, Rod Drury and Sir Stephen Tindall, has been cancelled.

The company failed to secure the $490 million it needed to build the cable.

Chairman of NZ ICT Bennett Medary says budding entrepreneurs might steer clear of similar ideas.

"They've seen some pretty go-ahead guys with quite a lot of capital and quite a lot of sway themselves fail to pull it off and these are guys who are known for pulling off good business opportunities."

Mr Medary says the project wasn't overly ambitious or beyond the realm of possibility, yet investors didn't want to back it.

He says the idea was innovative and needed buy-in.

"I think they're a bunch of guys who were trying to create some international bandwidth for us as a nation and they just couldn't get the capital required to carry on with the project."

The Telecommunication Users Association believes the demise of the internet cable plan may have been a case of bad timing.

TUANZ chief executive Paul Brislen says it's a difficult time to get financial buy-in.

"It's a big ask for banks in this environment so they're being very careful about just how they lend their money."

Mr Brislen says cancelling the plan hampers New Zealand's opportunity to compete in the internet market with other countries.

Photo: NZ Herald