Claims by Chorus that it has the country’s top ten cities for ‘fast, fixed line broadband’ have been questioned by New Zealand’s three other Local Fibre Companies.

Chorus’ data clearly ignores 120,000 plus fibre broadband users connected in the cities where the ultra-fast broadband network operator is Northpower Fibre (Whangarei), Hamilton-based Ultrafast Fibre or Enable (Christchurch).

Northpower Fibre CEO Darren Mason says, “In our communities around a third – if not more - of families and businesses are now connecting to fibre broadband. We have some of the highest fibre uptake in the country.

“Adding all these connections to the equation in Christchurch, Hamilton, Tauranga, Whanganui, New Plymouth, Tokoroa, Hawera, Cambridge, Te Awamutu and Whangarei would have a dramatic impact on the true top 10 list.”

Northpower Fibre’s average download connection speed for households and small businesses in Whangarei is 101.9Mbps, over Enable’s network in Christchurch it’s 101.7Mbps and Ultrafast’s average across eight Central North Island towns and cities is 86.5Mbps.

“We congratulate Chorus for having the fastest download speed in Dunedin – they are deserving of that position today,” says Enable CEO, Steve Fuller.

“Dunedin was the first town to have 1Gbps services available in New Zealand – but the three of us were the first to launch 1Gbps across our entire networks. We are seeing demand increase all the time for faster and faster fibre broadband services – and we embrace the challenge of taking the lead off Dunedin.”

Mr Mason adds, “We’re not going to stop at 1Gbps – Northpower Fibre recently completed a live trial with Calix to prove our network is capable of achieving speeds of 10Gig in a business and residential environment.”

Ultrafast CEO, William Hamilton says, “Over 80 percent of all new fibre broadband customers on our networks are demanding over 100Mbps speeds and we’re talking thousands of new customers each month.

“There are three network providers – intrinsically linked to their local regional communities – that are driving these communities to embrace fibre broadband at a tremendous rate for the economic and social good of our cities.

“Open access fibre networks have changed the telecommunications landscape in New Zealand and consumers deserve to have access to correct data, which is why Northpower Fibre, ourselves and Enable have released these figures today.”

The Local Fibre Company top cities for fibre connection download speeds:

1 / Whangarei – 101.9Mbps (Northpower Fibre)

2 / Christchurch – 101.7Mbps (Enable)

3 / Hamilton – 95.9Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)

4 / Hawera – 87.9Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)

5 / New Plymouth – 87Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)

6 / Whanganui – 83.8Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)

7 / Cambridge – 81.6Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)

8 / Te Awamutu – 80.7Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)

9 / Tauranga – 79.3Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)

10 / Tokoroa – 75.3Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)

About Ultrafast Fibre Limited:

Ultrafast Fibre built, owns and operates a 3,000km fibre network in the urban areas of Hamilton, Tauranga, Whanganui, New Plymouth, Tokoroa, Hawera, Cambridge and Te Awamutu. This network is available to more than 190,000 homes, schools and businesses, with over 75,000 customers now connected.

In addition work is underway on providing fibre for 12 more North Island towns, Ngaruawahia, Huntly, Kihikihi, Raglan, Eltham, Inglewood, Stratford, Waitara, Putaruru, Te Puke, Omokoroa and Katikati. The UFF network represents about 13% of the entire national UFB build.
Visit www.ultrafastfibre.co.nz for more details.

About Northpower Fibre:
Northpower Fibre completed New Zealand’s first ultra-fast broadband fibre network in Whangarei in 2014 – taking fibre to 22,500 customers.

In 2017, Northpower Fibre secured contracts to build UFB networks in 12 Kaipara and Whangarei towns – Kaiwaka, Mangawhai Village, Mangawhai Heads, Maungaturoto, Paparoa, Ruawai, Dargaville, Waipu, Ruakaka, One Tree Point, Waikaraka and Hikurangi. The four year project will provide UFB fibre to a further 10,000 customer in Northland – a substantial boost to the region.

Visit www.northpowerfibre.co.nz for more information.

About Enable
Enable is a network operator that provides fibre broadband services to homes, businesses and schools in Christchurch, Rangiora, Kaiapoi, Woodend, Lincoln, Prebbleton and Rolleston. Today Enable’s network reaches over 140,000 potential customers in these towns – and the network is set to extend to another 40,000 before 31 December 2018.

Focused only on the greater Christchurch region, Enable is inherently linked to the local community and is committed to making a positive contribution to this community – via its critical fibre network infrastructure and underlying potential of fibre broadband to transform how people use technology in their lives.