At a glance
EonFibre, the dedicated fibre business One New Zealand set up in 2024, launched Zone Direct on 12 October 2026, a connectivity service for data centre developers, hyperscalers, neoclouds and carriers.
It covers the six zones that Invest New Zealand, the government's investment agency, markets as advantaged for data centres: North Waikato, Taupō, Taranaki, Manawatū, South Canterbury and Central Otago.
Zone Direct runs from a proposed campus through the cable landings to customers offshore, with a connectivity brief for each zone and site assessments during site selection.
EonFibre co-owns the Tasman Global Access cable to Sydney and sells capacity on the Hawaiki and Southern Cross systems.
EonFibre sells connectivity before the site is chosen
EonFibre launched Zone Direct on 12 October 2026 for developers, hyperscalers, neoclouds and carriers considering New Zealand. It packages the fibre a developer needs to carry capacity from a New Zealand campus to customers in Australia, Asia and the United States. EonFibre assesses each candidate site's fibre routes, diversity and resilience, then can design, build, run and maintain the campus network. Each zone gets a brief with route options, the number of physically separate fibre paths and indicative latency to the cable landings, Australia and the United States.
"Developers want to know how many physically separate routes reach a site, how far it is to the international cables, and how quickly capacity can be delivered," chief executive Richard Mooney said. "Because we hold both the national routes and the international capacity, we can answer those questions and deliver the service end to end, from the campus to Sydney or the United States."
EonFibre runs more than 11,000km of fibre from Whangārei to Invercargill. It co-owns Tasman Global Access, which lands at Raglan and runs to Sydney, and sells capacity on Hawaiki and Southern Cross.
Invest New Zealand picked six zones on power, grid access and fibre
Invest New Zealand's Data and Digital Infrastructure sector overview chose the six zones for lead time to power, access to high-voltage infrastructure and backhaul fibre, the cable that links a site into the national network.
In the south, the agency has named Twizel, Ōhau, Geraldine and Cromwell as possible data centre locations. It told the Otago Daily Times that Datagrid's Makarewa campus and its international cable were the catalyst for the other southern proposals. Invest New Zealand said: "Without a subsea cable landing, data centre development becomes more challenged when compared to the North Island."
North Waikato and Taupō sit in the Waikato region. Its regional council has drafted bring-your-own-power terms for data centres, which expect developers to fund enough new generation, storage and network capacity to cover their own demand.
The six zones now come with a connectivity brief
Zone Direct adds route options and latency to offshore customers for each zone. Mooney said EonFibre wants to be in those conversations "while sites are still being chosen, to enable efficiencies across the development and operational process."
BCG's August 2026 report on New Zealand puts the potential at more than 1GW of new compute capacity over the next five years. Citing Transpower, it reports 11 data centre applications at assessment or design, totalling 1GW.
Telstra's infrastructure arm builds Aura ahead of demand
EonFibre is One New Zealand's fibre business, and Telstra has taken a similar route in Australia. Its infrastructure arm, Telstra Digital Infrastructure, sells capacity on the Aura Network to cloud, AI and digital infrastructure customers, and is building it ahead of their demand. Aura has about 9,000km built of a planned 14,000km, and its Perth to Sydney route launched on 7 October 2026, according to iTWire. Telstra Digital Infrastructure chief executive Steven Worrall described Aura as Australia's largest terrestrial intercity fibre network. Microsoft and Google have secured capacity on it, and Telstra has signed further Aura contracts.
"Demand for data capacity is accelerating, and our role is to ensure the infrastructure is in place ahead of that demand," Worrall said. Aura is a new build linking Australia's cities and regional centres. Zone Direct packages EonFibre's existing fibre and cable capacity for zones where campuses are still being planned.
What to watch
The first developer to sign. A named Zone Direct customer would show which of the six zones moves first.
Waikato's terms. The regional council's draft data centre position statement could return for adoption on 29 October 2026, setting out its expectations for data centres in North Waikato and Taupō.
The southern cable. Datagrid's Tasman Ring, announced on 31 July 2026 to run from Invercargill to Melbourne, is the cable Invest New Zealand ties to development in the southern zones.