UFB ahead of schedule: Chorus

Chorus claims its Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) network rollout is ahead of schedule, reporting that 228,000 premises had been passed by a fibre connection at March 31.

While the broadband infrastructure company said 297,000 end users have access to the service, it said actual connections grew from 27,000 to 35,000 across its network in the three months since December 31.

About 18,300 fibre connections are within Chorus’ completed UFB network footprint.

Fibre connections formed the majority of new fixed line connections in the first calendar quarter during which a total of 3000 lines were added, bringing the total to 1,779,000 connections; baseband copper, SLU/SLES, and data services over copper connections all fell.

Meanwhile, total broadband connections increased by 12,000 in the three-month period to 1,144,000.

Enhanced UBA, naked enhanced UBA, VDSL and fibre (Bitstream 2, 3, and fibre subdivisions) connections saw a healthy hike, while basic UBA connections dropped by 35,000.