Spark and Chorus to trial ‘street in a week’ fibre

Tuesday, 29 November 2016, 10:54 am
Press Release: Spark

Media Release
Tuesday 29 November, 2016

Spark and Chorus to trial ‘street in a week’ fibre installations in Whakatane

Encouraging more customers to move to fibre through a streamlined installation process

Spark and Chorus are piloting a process aiming to make it easier for homeowners to install fibre for their broadband service.

This involves upgrading all Spark customers in the same street that want Spark fibre broadband, in just one week – with customers having the certainty of being able to select a specific day within that week for their fibre installation.

The trial will take place in Whakatane in the week commencing 12 December and will offer up to 400 households with Spark copper broadband the opportunity to be upgraded to fibre in a shortened timeframe. This follows a similar pilot recently between Spark and Ultrafast Fibre to upgrade customers in Hamilton.

Nationwide, more than 28% of New Zealanders who have fibre laid in their street have so far chosen to upgrade from copper and both companies are looking to make it as easy as possible for other customers to make the move.

The current process usually involves three site visits, two of which the customer needs to be at home for, typically on different days. By concentrating teams and resources within a small geographic area for the week of the trial, Chorus will be able to deliver an accelerated installation process as teams work collaboratively. The customer should only need to be at home for one day.

Jason Paris, CEO of Spark Home, Mobile and Business, says, “Chorus is responsible for around 70% of the UFB roll out, supplying fibre to areas where hundreds of thousands of our customers live. We have a great opportunity here, to collaborate with them and learn more about ways of making it easier for our customers to get ultra-fast fibre into our customers’ homes.”

Tim Harris, Chorus Chief Commercial Officer says, “We are very happy to work with Spark to trial ways to connect even more of their customers to fibre, faster.

“We are open to working with all other retail service providers in a similar manner, to explore options and learnings that could increase efficiency and further improve the installation experience for customers, as the industry continues to build on the enormous success of ultra fast fibre.”

ENDS

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