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Fibre providers chime in on country's fastest broadband regions
Thu, 13th Apr 2017
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Chorus' latest survey of the top ten fastest services for broadband has ruffled feathers amongst three of the country's local fibre companies, including Northpower.

Chorus released new figures last week which revealed that Dunedin City was the fastest spot in the country for broadband, achieving a 69.3% growth rate from 115.9Mbps to 196.3Mbps in just a year.

“Overall, the average download speed for households and small businesses on the Chorus network in February 2017 was 41Mbps compared with 25Mbps at the same time last year,” the statement said.

However, Northpower says Chorus data ignores more than 120,000 broadband users connected in cities where the UFB network provider is Northpower (Whangarei) Ultrafast Fibre (Hamilton) or Enable (Christchurch).

"Adding all these connections to the equation in Christchurch, Hamilton, Tauranga, Whanganui, New Plymouth, Tokoroa, Hawera, Cambridge, Te Awamutu and Whangarei would have a dramatic impact on the true top 10 list,” comments Northpower Fibre CEO Darren Mason.

According to Chorus figures, Dunedin is first, followed by: North Shore City, Rotorua District, Porirua City, Auckland City, Manukau City, Lower Hutt City, Masterton District, Nelson City and the Papakura District.

According to Enable, Northpower and Ultrafast Fibre; their top ten list is as follows: Whangarei (101 Mbps), Christchurch, Hamilton, Hawera, New Plymouth, Whanganui, Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Tauranga and Tokoroa.

"We congratulate Chorus for having the fastest download speed in Dunedin - they are deserving of that position today," comments Enable CEO, Steve Fuller.

However Fuller believes that Enable was the first to launch 1Gbps across its network, and is trialing 10 gigs with Calix.

Northpower Fibre's average download connection speed for households and small businesses in Whangarei is 101.9Mbps, over Enable's network in Christchurch it's 101.7Mbps and Ultrafast's average across eight Central North Island towns and cities is 86.5Mbps.

Ultrafast CEO, William Hamilton says, "Over 80 percent of all new fibre broadband customers on our networks are demanding over 100Mbps speeds and we're talking thousands of new customers each month,” adds Ultrafast Fibre CEO William Hamilton.

"There are three network providers - intrinsically linked to their local regional communities - that are driving these communities to embrace fibre broadband at a tremendous rate for the economic and social good of our cities.

"Open access fibre networks have changed the telecommunications landscape in New Zealand and consumers deserve to have access to correct data, which is why Northpower Fibre, ourselves and Enable have released these figures."

The aggregated top 10 list from Chorus, Northpower, Ultrafast Fibre and Enable is below. Chorus figures were current as at 28 February 2017. Other providers did not declare a specific date that the speeds were noted.

  • Dunedin City (196.3Mbps) - Chorus
  • Whangarei - 101.9Mbps - Northpower Fibre
  • Christchurch - 101.7Mbps - Enable
  • Hamilton - 95.9Mbps - Ultrafast Fibre
  • Hawera - 87.9Mbps - Ultrafast Fibre
  • New Plymouth - 87Mbps - Ultrafast Fibre
  • Whanganui - 83.8Mbps - Ultrafast Fibre
  • Cambridge - 81.6Mbps - Ultrafast Fibre
  • Te Awamutu - 80.7Mbps - Ultrafast Fibre
  • Tauranga - 79.3Mbps - Ultrafast Fibre
  • Tokoroa - 75.3Mbps - Ultrafast Fibre