Fibre Max now one in six Chorus connections

Chorus added 7,000 gigabit or Fibre Max connections during the third quarter of its 2021 financial year. Fibre Max is the name the Commerce Commission prefers over gigabit.

The company’s latest connections update says the company now has 143,000 Fibre Max connections. That’s 17 percent of the 831,000 total customers connected to fibre.

Meanwhile the number of fibre connections running at speeds of 50Mbps or less continues to fall. It now make up less than 10 percent of the total.

Fibre uptake across the Chorus network climbed from 63 to 64 percent during the quarter. In UFB1 areas uptake is now 68 percent.

UFB uptake edges up

The number of premises in the Chorus footprint who are now using fibre is 64 percent of those who can. The uptake number ticked up one percent in the quarter. This continues to rise every quarter, although the pace of increase has slowed.

Chorus now faces more intense competition from fixed wireless broadband providers. Vodafone introduced a $40 plan with 60GB of data for light users during the quarter.

Meanwhile 2degrees has started promoting its own fixed wireless service. It offers customers 300GB of data each month for $55.

For now 2degrees has limited fixed wireless capacity. The company says it expects to double its capacity over the coming year,

In round numbers about one-in-four of those switching from copper is moving to fixed wireless.

Fibre max sees data continues to climb

The average customer on the Chorus network used 416Gb of data in March. That’s up from 390GB in December.

Fibre customers now chew through an average of 491GB each month. Copper customers are using 241GB.