UFB connections up says Chorus

Fibre connections have increased 23 per cent in the previous quarter. Photo / File

More people are switching to ultra-fast broadband according to Chorus' latest quarterly report.

Chorus increased broadband connections 0.9 per cent in the previous quarter, with more customers connecting to fibre.

Broadband connections increased by 11,000 lines to 1,218,000 at the end of September, from 1,207,000 in June.

During the quarter Chorus' fixed-line connections decreased 1 per cent to 1.78 million.

Chorus said in a statement that this fall was expected because dual copper-fibre
lines were removed and people connected to fibre in areas with different providers.

Fibre connections were up 23 per cent to 92,000. Chorus said on average there were more than 300 new fibre connections per day - September recorded the largest monthly increase since the roll-out began, with 6,000 new fibre connections added to the network.

Fibre roll-out in Masterton and Greymouth were completed in the last quarter.

The company was awarded the majority of the government's programme to roll-out a fibre telecommunications network to 75 per cent of the country, a target which has since been extended to 80 per cent.

The latest Budget announcement set aside $360 million to extend UFB to rural areas.

Communications Minister Amy Adams said last month the UFB project was now more than 50 per cent complete and 750,000 New Zealanders were able to connect. By 2022, at least 80 per cent of New Zealanders will have access to fibre.

The first phase of UFB roll-out is due to be completed in December 2019 and a Request for Proposals has been released for the second phase.