Local fibre firms question Chorus' top 10 UFB cities claim

A Northpower sub-contractor uses a horizontal directional drilling rig to make ready for the installation of ultra fast broadband. Photo / File

Claims by Chorus that it has the country's top 10 cities for "fast, fixed line broadband" have been questioned by New Zealand's three other local fibre companies, including Northland's Northpower.

The companies say Chorus' data ignores 120,000 plus fibre broadband users connected in the cities where the ultra-fast broadband network operator is Northpower Fibre (Whangarei), Hamilton-based Ultrafast Fibre or Enable (Christchurch).

Earlier this month Chorus announced Rotorua and Porirua had faster internet than major centres Auckland and Wellington.

The telco said Dunedin had the fastest internet in the country way out in front with an average connection speed of 196Mbps. By comparison, North Shore - in second place - had an average speed of 54Mbps.

Chorus said New Zealand's top 10 fastest cities for broadband were:

1. Dunedin City - 196.3Mbps,
2. North Shore City - 54.3Mbps
3. Rotorua District - 52.8Mbps
4. Porirua City - 47.7Mbps
5. Auckland City - 45.4Mbps
6. Manukau City - 45Mbps
7. Lower Hutt City - 43.9Mbps
8. Masterton District - 43.4Mbps
9. Nelson City - 43Mbps
10. Papakura District - 42.7Mbps.

However, Northpower Fibre chief executive Darren Mason said around a third - if not more - of families and businesses in their communities are now connecting to fibre broadband.

"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," he said.

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

The local fibre company top 10 for fibre connection download speeds were:

1 Whangarei - 101.9Mbps (Northpower Fibre)
2 Christchurch -101.7Mbps (Enable)
3 Hamilton - 95.9Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)
4 Hawera - 87.9Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)
5 New Plymouth - 87Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)
6 Whanganui - 83.8Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)
7 Cambridge - 81.6Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)
8 Te Awamutu - 80.7Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)
9 Tauranga - 79.3Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre)
10 Tokoroa - 75.3Mbps (Ultrafast Fibre).

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

Mr Mason said, "We're not going to stop at 1Gbps - Northpower Fibre recently completed a live trial with Calix to prove our network is capable of achieving speeds of 10Gig in a business and residential environment."

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

"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."