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Wellington, Feb 21 (IANS) Telecommunications giant Ericsson is to build its second fiber ducting plant in New Zealand, the New Zealand government announced Thursday. The Sweden-based firm would invest about 15 million NZ dollars ($12.51 million) in a new facility in Porirua, near capital Wellington, Commmunications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams said in a statement. The plant would produce optical fibre ducting for the government's Ultra-Fast Broadband Initiative (UFB), which aims to reach 75 percent of the population, and potentially also for export to the Asia-Pacific region, she said. The facility, only the second Ericsson has built and the first outside of Sweden, would include facilities for specialized training, and research and development, reported Xinhua. "The deployment of UFB is one of the largest and transformative infrastructure projects ever to be undertaken in New Zealand. Today's announcement is a tangible example of the innovation, job opportunities and in the longer term, higher productivity, that will result from our UFB program," said Adams. About 25,000 km of fibre would be required across the 33 cities and towns covered by the UFB rollout.
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