Three UFB wholesalers offer faster fibre plans, citing growth in broadband TV

The good news: three wholesale UFB providers are going to offer faster fibre plans for $39.95 from August 31.

LATEST: Price, price, price is the key to higher UFB update - analyst

The so-so news: you'll have to pay $2.34 more than their current base plans.

The bad: the three wholesalers: Enable (Christchurch), Ultrafast Fibre (Hamilton, Tauranga, Whanganui) and Northpower Fibre (Whangarei) cover only around 20% of the UFB rollout.

The new plans follow a similar move by Chorus, which introduced a 50/10 product in early April at $40.20.

The new plans have 50Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds (the previous base level was 30Mbit/s down - roughly three times the speed of most copper broadband or ADSL connections - and 10Mbit/s up).

It's up to retail ISPs (such as Telecom, Vodafone, Slingshot and Orcon) to decide on data caps. Retailers whack on a margin, too, which typically takes their cheapest entry-level plans to $70 or $75.

“The availability of online services and what people want to do over the internet is changing very quickly,” says Enable CEO, Steve Fuller.

“Our base-level 30Mbps download/10Mbps upload product is still a big jump in consistent broadband performance for most customers moving from copper. With new online services coming to market all the time and more connected devices being used more frequently, we’ve recognised the need for even faster fibre broadband at a very good price.”

In recent months, TV networks have begun to embrace the online content era – with new TV on demand services, and retail service providers are regularly announcing new services for fibre and looking to deliver more online content as part of their packages.

“Last week’s announcement that English Premier League football will be delivered to New Zealand fans online tells us that the new services released recently are just the tip of the iceberg,” says Northpower Fibre CEO Darren Mason.

“Demand for high definition sport content provided online – combined with the limitations of ADSL and VDSL copper broadband – means customers need fibre broadband, which provides sufficient bandwidth for multiple users simultaneously.” VDSL can offer fibre-like speeds, but unlike fibre its bandwidth degrades rapidly with distance.

Ultrafast Fibre CEO, Maxine Elliott says, “We know people want more bandwidth because we’ve seen much greater uptake of our 100Mbps download /50Mbps upload residential service than we ever anticipated – and this is even with the price premium that comes with this service.”

At $39.95 the new residential 50 Mbps download /20 Mbps upload fibre broadband service is only $2.45 more than the current base-level wholesale fibre broadband service and is cheaper for retail service providers than either ADSL or VDSL copper broadband.

The business version of the 50Mbps download /20Mbps upload product is $49.95 or the same price as the current 30Mbps download / 10Mbps upload, entry level service.

“Ultimately the retail pricing is up to service providers but our wholesale price should mean that residential customers will be able to enjoy the higher performance for only a few dollars more and business customers won’t face any extra cost,” added Ms Elliott.

Enable is building its fibre broadband network in Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri; Ultrafast Fibre is building in Hamilton, Tauranga, Wanganui, New Plymouth, Tokoroa, Hawera, Cambridge and Te Awamutu; and Northpower Fibre in Whangarei.

This new 50Mbps download /20Mbps upload fibre broadband service will be available where the network build has been completed within these coverage areas only. This means, approximately 85,000 business and residential customers,