Computerworld

Chorus: Why Windows 10 ISN’T impacting NZ UFB congestion

Chorus moves to reassure Kiwis that Microsoft’s Windows 10 upgrade has in fact, not caused UFB congestion across New Zealand.

Chorus has moved to reassure Kiwis that Microsoft’s Windows 10 upgrade has in fact, not caused UFB congestion across New Zealand, despite claims to the contrary.

As reported by Computerworld New Zealand, a new study of over 2,000 Kiwi businesses, conducted by local telecommunications company Digital Island, claims that the four gigabyte sized, free upgrade to the operating system, has caused a daily average increase to UFB traffic of around 40 percent - with peak network traffic increasing by over 100 percent at times.

Yet despite the claims, a spokesperson for Chorus contacted Computerworld New Zealand to question the figures, stating via email: “There is currently no congestion in the Chorus UFB network. Every UFB user can expect to receive the service and speed as per the plan they have purchased.”

According to Chorus, if an individual consumer or business is using their full connection speed, then they can expect each individual service to be less fast as the connection is shared between all the applications they are using on their computer.

“For example, downloading Windows 10 on a 30Mbps connection will have an impact on other applications sharing this connection, while downloading it on a 1Gbps business connection will have little impact,” the spokesperson explains.

“With the current growth in the use of video on demand services like Netflix and Lightbox and the need to download very large files for software upgrades and gaming, Chorus recommends purchasing a plan to match your usage.

“As an example, a recent Chorus study showed that a 100Mbps plan will result in a better video experience than a 30Mbps plan for consumers.”

In contrast however, Digital Island CEO Blair Stewart, says that although the Windows 10 upgrade has been progressively released to users, the increase in traffic volume has been “significant” over the past week alone, and is set to continue as hundreds of thousands of computers throughout the country download the new operating system.

In response, Chorus says “very high bandwidth users can take advantage of Chorus 200Mbps and 1Gbps plans.”

“UFB has been designed to support upgrade to these ultra-high speeds services on demand without any change to the network connection,” the spokesperson adds.

“The Chorus UFB fibre network is ready to support future bandwidth demand while remaining congestion free.”

Furthermore, Chorus claims that UFB has also been designed to support the needs of business users.

“There are a range of business plans that allow customers to choose higher peak speeds and a larger committed bandwidth allocation which can be reserved for essential services like voice and video conferencing,” the spokesperson adds.

“Some businesses today have plans with dedicated downstream and upstream bandwidth up to 10Gbps in order to meet their needs.”