WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — Chorus, a telecommunications infrastructure company serving New Zealand, announced that it will extend its one gigabit (1 Gbps) residential and SME business fiber broadband service across its entire ultra-fast broadband (UFB) footprint from 1 October 2016.
The move follows Chorus introducing gigabit services to New Zealand — proving both the demand and the technical viability — after the launch of its gig services in Dunedin in February 2015. The company has long had national gigabit broadband services on its product roadmap and from October will make them available on any UFB connection.
“We are delighted that other fiber providers have joined Chorus in championing gigabit residential and business services,” said Mark Ratcliffe, Chorus CEO. “Making New Zealand a true ‘Gignation,’ beyond the 5,000-plus connections we have in Dunedin, should see us catapulted up the league tables of broadband speed rankings and reinforce the high quality of the broadband infrastructure we’re rolling out.”
Currently, the average download speed across Chorus’ networks is 30.5 Mbps. Gigabit broadband offers real world download speeds approaching 1,000 Mbps and uploads of up to 500 Mbps. Chorus’ Gigabit broadband service will run at the maximum speed the network electronics allows today. In practice this means customers will see download speeds between 900 Mbps and 970 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 500 Mbps.
Chorus’ residential wholesale gigabit broadband service will be available to broadband retailers at an introductory price of $60 per month until 30 June 2017 after which it increases to $65 per month. The business service will be priced at $75 per month from launch. Existing fiber customers looking to upgrade to a gigabit plan will not require a Chorus technician to visit their home. Chorus is working closely with Crown Fibre Holdings for their approval of the gigabit service pricing. However, if approval is not obtained by the end of September, the services will launch on a trial basis.
