Fibre Max speeds improve, Ericsson to build 2degrees 5G

Fibre Max speeds improve in broadband report

Fibre Max broadband performance showed a marked improvement in the Commerce Commission's April 2021 Measuring Broadband report.

with a nominal speed of 1 Gbps are now know as Fibre Max . The Commerce Commission doesn't like fast fibre described as gigabit because plan customers don't see full gigabit speeds. While the wholesale circuit runs at a gigabit, network overheads reduce the usable bandwidth seen by users.

Previous Measuring Broadband reports found Fibre Max plans underperformed. Customers saw a wide range of speeds. In some cases the speed was close to half the nominal gigabit per second. At times it was even lower. It was noticeable that performance was worse in the South Island than in the North Island.

In December the Commerce Commission set up a working party to investigate the problems with Fibre Max. There was more than one issue to consider. Issues were identified and acted on.

In the April report the average Fibre Max speed was 840Mbps. That's more than 200 Mbps higher than in earlier reports.

The report says the improvement is because of network changes at the end of 2020. It also notes there is no performance dip during peak hours for customers on these plans. Upload speeds on Fibre Max plans average 500 Mbps.

Vodafone and Spark offered better Fibre Max performance than other ISPs, but the report notes the difference is not statistically significant.

Vodafone HFC Max

Vodafone's HFC Max, broadband based on the company's hybrid fibre co-axial cable network, was measured for the first time. It comes in behind Fibre Max with an average download speed of 672 Mbps. The average upload speed is 93 Mbps.

When HFC Max was first introduced, speeds were behind the better fibre plans. It's caught up. In practice customers will get much the same experience as they'd get on the UFB fibre network.

Customers buying 100 Mbps fibre plans get exactly what it says on the label: connections running a tick over 100 Mpbs.

VDSL performed better than fixed wireless broadband for downloads while fixed wireless was a little faster than VDSL for uploads. The average VDSL customer saw 41.9Mbps down while the fixed wireless average was 25.2 Mbps. These speeds are in line with earlier reports.

Fixed wireless broadband remains something of a lottery. It can be good in the right location, but has the highest latency of all technologies apart from satellite. Fixed wireless connections are more likely to experience issues with latency-sensitive applications such as online gaming or video conferencing. Connections can also be affected by congestion.

Gigabit plans now one in six Chorus connections

Chorus added 7,000 gigabit or Fibre Max connections during the third quarter of 2021. The latest connections update says the company now has 143,000 gigabit connections, that's 17 percent of the total.

Meanwhile the number of fibre connections running at speeds of 50Mbps or less continues to fall. They 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.

Ericsson to build 2degrees 5G network

Ericsson is to build a 5G mobile network for 2degrees. The telco says a 5G service will go live on 100 towers in parts of Auckland and Wellington later this year. The New Zealand Herald reports 2degrees will remove the Huawei equipment currently installed and replace with Ericsson hardware in a move that will double network capacity.

Spark overtakes Vodafone in mobile market share

Datamine's Telcowatch reports Spark was the mobile market share leader for the first three months of 2021. Spark's market share climbed 1.6 percent in the quarter to edge ahead of Vodafone which was down 1.8 percent. 2degrees was steady on 23 percent. Spark's Skinny subsidiary was up a fraction at 7 percent. Together Spark and Skinny have 42 percent of the market.

Vodafone most complained about telco

Vodafone remains New Zealand's most complained about telco. In the most recent Telecommunications Dispute Resolution report, Vodafone topped the table in the third and fourth quarters of 2020. The TDR table is adjusted to reflect company size.

Vodafone had 0.43 and 0.33 complaints per 10,000 mobile connections in the two quarters. Spark was the least complained about company with 0.20 and 0.25 mobile complaints in each quarter. Vodafone was also the most complained about company for broadband.

Mobile phone driving fine rises to $150

Transport Minister Michael Wood says the fine for using a mobile while driving will increase from $80 to $150. There is no change to the 20 demerit points for being caught.