Spark's Bigpipe launches new high speed plans

Wanganui residents and businesses are expected to connect to ultra fast broadband in increasing numbers in the coming months. PHOTO/ STUART MUNRO

Spark-owned internet service provider Bigpipe today announced the launch of three new Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) plans.

The top end package for $129 per month offers the fastest available speeds for residential customers in Auckland - 200Mbps for both download and upload.

The wholesale packages Bigpipe picked up through Chorus were opened up in July, but apart from Bigpipe, other ISP's have been slow to pick them up.

"Bigpipe is first but we are expecting more ISPs to offer super fast packages, said Chorus spokesman Ian Bonnar.

Bigpipe launched in February and already had three standard copper plans which have been reported as the top ADSL performer in Truenet's independent industry reports.

Both Chorus and Bigpipe believe there is a consumer demand for significantly faster packages with no datacaps.

The lowest UFB package with a download of 100 Mbps and an upload of just 20Mbps is a $79 per month, one for 200 Mbps download and 20Mbps upload for $99 and the $129 package.

Bigpipe head Oliver Smith said that Chorus introduced the higher speed plans in July to move away from the standardised entry level plan of 30/10.

Smith said that while Bigpipe have embraced this move, others had so far ignored it.

"Ultra-Fast Broadband should not be offered to customers at any less than 100Mbps download speed.

Anything lower defeats the purpose of purchasing UFB," Smith said.

Bigpipe has made Auckland the top priority but says offers will be rolled out to other regions.