Broadband infrastructure company, Chorus, has proposed two new Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) products which it aims to bring to market by January 1 following an industry consultation period.
The proposal includes fibre broadband ranging from 50 megabytes per second (MBps) download and 20MBps upload (priced at $37.50, but increasing to $42.50 by 2019) to 200MBps download and 200MBps upload for businesses at $175. The lowest priced 200MBps download product is listed at $55, and offers 20MBps uploads.
These will be made available in addition to the current fibre products specified under the Crown Fibre Holdings contract.
“We are now two years into the roll out of UFB and we will be regularly improving our product offerings,” Chorus marketing and sales general manager, Victoria Crone, said. “With this move we are aiming to optimise average revenue per user and provide more choice.”
According to Chorus, the plans will enable retail service providers (RSPs) to take the wholesale inputs and develop products and services based on them.
“UFB has the potential to transform NZ’s economy, our communities, and the way we connect to the rest of the world. At the completion of the UFB roll out in 2019, we believe NZ will be a top 10 broadband country and continually improving the speeds and capabilities offered by fibre will be an important part of achieving that goal,” Crone said.
Chorus is investing around $3 billion with up to $929 million of Crown financing which will eventually be repaid to deliver fibre optic broadband infrastructure to more than 800,000 schools, business, medical facilities, and homes.