I’ve got mixed emotions about the news that FX have done a deal with Vocus, I’ll miss FX they’ve made a huge contribution to the NZ telco scene and they’ve achieved more in a short period of time than virtually any other player I can think of.

FX is proof that dreams can come true, I remember Roger de Salis sitting at a desk in CityLink in 2002 formulating this crazy idea that he could build a network based on the railways fibre.

Roger then quite literally talked and pitched his way into being a player, with serious backing from Colin Hill he set about turning his dream into reality, he attracted  talent, clients and capital and built an awesome business.

I have so many fond memories of going to ‘Thursday Night Curry’ in Manners Mall and getting caught up in the energy of so many of our brightest and proudest geeks, people like Jonny Martin, Jamie Baddeley and Neil Fenemor.

They set out to build a proper network and they succeeded, FX reaches nearly every City in NZ and now runs at a blistering 100gb/s, they provide the physical network for KAREN, the backbone for one.govt and are trusted by many major organisations like the NZ Police & Transpower to provide their national communications backbone.

FX has also supported many of our innovative ISP’s and have even been used to show how we really can have ‘fibre to the farm’. People like James Watts at inspire.net in Palmerston North and Chris Roberts at Amuri Net in Culverden (in North Canterbury) spring to mind.

People like Murray Jurgeleit and Dave Heald have taken FX to the position it is in today.

Vocus actually feel like they are the right kind of buyer and I’m really hoping they focus on delivering the services that will make the UFB come alive.

FX I’ll miss you but Vocus – the future is yours