Full speed ahead on the net

By CHRIS BARTON

Counties Power has shifted gear into the fast lane of broadband internet access, lifting customer connection speeds by up to 10 times for the same cost.

Counties Power chief executive Neil Simmonds said the new speeds were so the community could experience what real broadband was like.

"We've made sure that when people are on the net, they can go where they want really quickly. We've made sure we're not the bottleneck."

Residential and business customers in the Counties region previously on a 128 kilobits per second (kbps) access will now rocket along eight times faster at 1 megabit per (Mbps) second at no extra charge. Those on a 256kbps move up to 2Mbps, 512kbps customers get 5Mbps speeds, and 2Mbps users get 10Mbps. Speeds of up to 100Mbps will be available for customers of a 10Mbps service.

Counties Power began deploying its Wired Country broadband service in May by rolling out fibre-optic cable around the business and industrial parts of Pukekohe, in new subdivisions and along the road towards Papakura. In August, it added wireless connectivity over the 3.5GHz frequency using Remec wireless modems and antennas to extend its network coverage to about 20,000 homes and businesses in Manurewa, Takanini, Ardmore, Papakura, Pukekohe and Tuakau.

About a 100 customers are now using the network which Simmonds hopes will dramatically increase over the next few months - especially as the the company has now also provisioned for extra backhaul capacity for internet providers.

"We've decided to take the connection speeds outside of the industry norm, at no extra charge, to show people just how enhanced their day-to-day communications can be."

The tenfold increase in speed will be available to all existing customers and any signing up with the network through its retail partners Iconz, ihug, The Packing Shed, Watchdog and Wave Internet. The promotion will run until at least March 2004, by which time Simmonds expects further improvements with the inclusion of voice services.

Simmonds said that if Wired Country wins the soon-to-be-announced Auckland Region Probe bid all customers in those areas would also be eligible for the upgrade. .

Andrew Bevin, general manager of the The Packing Shed, said reaction to the Wired Country Service had been positive. He confirmed its 128kbps service costing $45 a month with a monthly 1GB traffic cap now jumps to a 1Mbps service. For $65 per month customers can get the same service with a 5GB traffic cap - eight times faster than Telecom Xtra's Jetstream Starter which also costs $65.

Wave Internet's manager Mike Leaver says the new speed and prices are likely to be very appealing to business users.

For $278 a month businesses will be able to get a 5Mbps service with a 5GB cap.

Other Wired Country services likely to jump to 1Mbps include Iconz's flat-rate residential service for $65 per month and ihug's $80 a month service with a 1GB cap.