Roll-out of ultrafast broadband passes milestone

Friday, 14 June 2019

Gore is one of the smaller towns to get UFB.

Three-quarters of homes and businesses now have access to fibre-optic ultrafast broadband if they want it, and more than half of those 1.48 million homes and businesses have now connect to the network, government figures for the end of March show.

Communications Minister Kris Faafoi said demand for UFB was strongest in regional centres, with Hamilton, Waiuku, Waipū and Tauranga boasting connection rates of more than 60 per cent, ahead of the average connection rate of 51.7 per cent.

By the end of 2022 when the communal build of the UFB network is complete, 87 per cent of homes and businesses should have access to fibre broadband, with the network available in 390 cities and towns.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment forecasts that will put New Zealand in the 'top 5' in the OECD for access to fibre-to-the-home.

Of the 765,000 homes and businesses that had connected by the end of March, 8 per cent had selected gigabit plans, with 85 per cent on plans with download speeds of 100 megabits per second or less.

Communications Minister Kris Faafoi says UFB demand is strong in regional centres.

The connection rate in Auckland where the communal roll-out was nearing completion was 57.5 per cent.

In Wellington, where the roll-out won't be completed until the end of next year, the figure was 41 per cent, and in Christchurch, where the network is complete, it was 48 per cent.

Those figures may reflect the continued popularity of Vodafone's cable broadband networks in those two cities.

Chorus said on Thursday that it had the capacity to connect another 50,000 homes to UFB by the time Spark starts streaming the Rugby World Cup in Tokyo in September.

Chorus chief customer officer Ed Hyde advised people who wanted the 'best viewing experience' to connect their television to a fibre or VDSL copper broadband connection.

'Fixed wireless, or using a mobile network for broadband at home, won't allow for full 1080p HD and the picture quality will be reduced to 720p so as not to overload the mobile network,' he said.

Spark spokeswoman Ellie Cross said the situation was more nuanced than Chorus was suggesting.

Spark has been promoting wireless broadband as a good option to many of its customers.

'We are exploring bitrate management as an option with internet providers, but nothing is in place or has been confirmed yet,' she said.