Chorus has upgraded nearly 100 broadband cabinets as part of a $5 million programme of work across rural New Zealand.

The broadband cabinets have been upgraded with new VDSL broadband electronics and connected back to the local exchange by fibre optic cable.

Ed Beattie, Chorus' GM of Infrastructure, says slow internet speeds have been a concern for businesses and residents in these areas for a while.

“There's no question that access to better broadband makes a significant difference to the lives of New Zealanders, and this programme of work shows how committed we are about improving rural connectivity,” explains Beattie.

Residents living within around 1.2km of their cabinet should be able to access fibre-enabled, VDSL broadband with consistent speeds up to 70Mbps.

Chorus has advised that residents and businesses based further from the cabinet will still likely experience much improved speeds - depending on the distance to the broadband cabinet.

Extending Chorus' network of modern, fibre-fed broadband cabinets means even more households will be able to take advantage of faster broadband and satisfy their ever increasing demand for internet data.

According to Chorus, latest figures show the average broadband data usage on its network for residential connections increased to 120GB in October – a huge increase on the 44GB used by households at the start of 2015.

“Typically, homes now have several connected devices at any one time, so we're all using far more broadband data. This is borne out by recent statistics that half of all residential broadband plans are now unlimited. These plans are competitively priced and remove the fear of chewing through your data allowance and being charged extra,” explains Beattie.

Chorus has also made it easier for people to upgrade to VDSL. In most cases, if VDSL is available at an address, the upgrade can be completed remotely without no technician involved.