Palmerston North, Auckland and Wellington are leading the way in signing up to Chorus' ultra-fast broadband network.
Chorus, the telecommunications network operator, is seeing growth in its high-speed fixed line connections as it continues to roll out the bulk of the government-sponsored ultrafast broadband fibre network, and is talking up the value of its lines as it tries to deflate the threat of price regulation.
The Wellington-based
company added 6,000 fixed line connections in the three months ended Sept. 30 taking its total to 1.78 million, with 15,000 more broadband connections for a total of 1.18 million.
Of that, fibre line connections rose to 53,000 at the end of September from 42,000 at the end of June, with 41,000 broadband fibre connections up from 31,000. Its very fast digital subscriber line (VDSL) service, which provides high speed broadband over its regulated copper lines, rose to 61,000 from 49,000 and naked VDSL broadband rose to 19,000 from 15,000.
In slides accompanying a presentation to analysts, the network operator said there is a steady migration away from basic copper services to the high-speed copper and fibre connections, with voice lines declining, though still representing a quarter of the firm's connections.
Chorus said it was 34 percent through the UFB roll-out, with the build completed for 286,000 premises and 386,000 end users within reach of the government-sponsored network. It also had 75,000 lines within reach of better broadband under the government's Rural Broadband Initiative.
