New Zealand's second largest ISP, Vodafone, says it will soon offer gigabit fibre plans.
The price in the Northpower, Enable and Ultra Fast Fibre UFB areas will be $140 a month. It says "Elsewhere", read that
as the Chorus UFB area, prices will be released in the "near future".[1]
Vodafone stands out from the service provider pack in two important ways. First, it owns a vertically integrated cable
network in Wellington, Christchurch and the Kapiti Coast.
Second, it is working towards a merger with Sky TV which will put it in the box seat for local sport, movie and
television services.
Vodafone has rebranded its hybrid fiber-coaxial network as FibreX. The company's consumer director Matt Williams says
there has been a $22 million investment upgrading this network for gigabit services.
Williams says there will be a compelling offer for customers in the network area to upgrade in the near future. Most
observers expect that to include a bundled price that includes SkyTV services.
Vodafone's FibreX price will be interesting. Because the UFB network will overbuild the FibreX network, there's a
competitive constraint on the amount Vodafone can charge set by the fibre network wholesalers.
At the same time, the FibreX network is vertically integrated, so there is no-one clipping the ticket.
What you'll pay for gigabit fibre broadband
$140
$129
$110
$120
$135
$129
$140
$115
$140
MyRepubliccharges $60 for the first six months for customers signing a 24-month contract. Over the period of the contract the
monthly fee works out at $105.
Orconcustomers signing for 24 months get an Xbox One S.
There is a $50 installation fee atBigpipebut no contracts.
ExistingSparkbroadband customers get the Lightbox video-on-demand service and free access to the nationwide wi-fi hotspot network.
There's also a $10 a month discount when a mobile phone is on the same account.
Full Flavouris running a promotion where new customers pay only $100 a month for the first 12 months. There are no long-term
contracts and installation is free.
Prices are complicated at2degrees.A connection costs $95 a month, then you pay $45 for a 1Gbps “speed boost”. Customers signing for 24-months pay $60 a
month for the first 12-months. The monthly cost over the full period of the contract works out at around $124 a month.
There's a $10 a month discount to 2degrees phone customers.
An early draft of another ISP's price list showed monthly plans in the Chorus UFB area were $10 more than elsewhere, but
this was dropped by the time of the launch.
What you'll pay for gigabit fibre, now with added Vodafone was first posted at billbennett.co.nz.