Chorus completes first phase of fibre build on time

Chorus completes first phase of fibre build on time and on budget

Chorus has today announced that a nine-year project to bring 28 towns and cities world-class broadband has been completed – on time and on budget.

Chorus today joined Communications Minister Kris Faafoi for an event in Auckland to mark the first phase of the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) programme completion by connecting the last piece of the fibre network.

Chorus CEO, JB Rousselot said New Zealand’s fibre network is the envy of many countries around the world.

“The Chorus team has done a fantastic job delivering this massive programme of work.

“Many countries around the world would give anything to have our fibre network.

“There is no question that access to extremely fast broadband makes a significant difference to the lives of New Zealanders, and this initiative shows how passionate Chorus is about improving connectivity.

“I want to thank both the previous and current governments for backing the project so enthusiastically. New Zealand has shown how a public-private partnership can work very well and deliver an extremely cost-effective outcome for taxpayers.”

In building the first phase of UFB, Chorus laid about 28,000kms of fibre cabling.

With the first phase of the fibre build now complete, Chorus continues to work on the second phase, UFB2 and UFB2+, taking fibre to a further 300 or so communities.

Mr Rousselot says it is encouraging that so many New Zealanders are using the fibre network, with uptake continuing to exceed expectations.

When Chorus began the fibre rollout, the contractual target was to achieve 20 percent uptake by the end of 2019. Uptake is currently sitting at more than 55 percent.

“One of the main factors that has highlighted the need for fibre is the huge spike in data use on the fibre network.”

Back in 2011 when the build started, the average household was only using 12GB of data a month. Fast forward to today and now it’s 279GB. Fibre users are consuming even more data, averaging 360GB a month.

“As we’ve seen with Rugby World Cup, the growing consumer adoption of video on demand services drives significant growth in data usage. That’s all the more so when people watch live sports events online.”

Some key fibre statistics:

• Total length of fibre cable laid: 28,000kms

• Length of individual strands of fibre laid: 2.2 million kms

• Target for the uptake of fibre was 20 percent by the end of 2019, uptake today is 55 percent

• When Chorus started the fibre build in 2011:

the average connection speed was 10Mbps – it’s now over 125Mbps

the average internet data usage was 12GBs, it’s now 297GBs

• Chorus residential and small business fibre users are now averaging 360GBs of internet data monthly

• Peak time network throughput now regularly above 2Tbps

• New peak time record of 2.60Tbps coincided with the quarter finals of Rugby World Cup

• Gigabit connections growing rapidly, now nearly 70,000

• Recently launched 2Gbps and 4Gbps wholesale plans (Hyperfibre) available from February next year, an 8Gbps service is planned to follow

Ends

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