Fibre now half of Chorus connections as uptake grows

Chorus reports that half of all its broadband connections now use fibre. The company added 43,000 fibre connections during the quarter, taking it to a total of 599,000. That’s up from 433,000 a year earlier. The total number of connections is 1.2 million.

Fibre uptake across the Chorus network is now at 53 percent of the premises able to connect to the service.

The company’s fourth quarter connections update also notes demand for 1 Gbps fibre connections climbed 16 percent in the last three months.

Chorus added 8000 1 Gbps connections during the quarter taking it to a total of 58,000 connections on the fastest speed plans.

Data use continues to climb. In the report for the period to the end of June the average monthly data use across the Chorus network was 265GB. Aucklanders use more data than customers elsewhere.

Fibre users now average 341GB a month, up from 329GB in the previous quarter. The peak time use on the network is now more than 2Tbps. That’s up 77 percent compared with two years ago.

Government launches small business online hub

Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says the government is spending $7.1 million on a central online hub where companies can communicate more efficiently with government agencies.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment says this could save small companies as much as $300 million a year. The Business Connect service will open in October. It is being developed by Datacom.

Commerce Commission eyes Spark copper voice service deregulation

A Commerce Commission report recommends removing Spark’s resale copper voice services from Schedule 1 of the Telecommunications Act.

Telecommunications Commissioner Dr Stephen Gale says retailers can provide voice services over fibre and other networks to almost everyone and competition is well established. The handful of consumers who have no option other than Spark’s service are protected by a price cap set in the Telecommunications Service Obligations.

Vocus brands in frame for false billing

The Commerce Commission has laid charges against Vocus retail brands: Callplus (trading as Slingshot), Flip and Orcon. It says the companies made false representations in invoices they sent to their customers after those customers had cancelled services. There are 13 charges in total. The case will be heard in the Auckland District Court July 23.

Chile-China submarine cable could land in New Zealand

Commsday reports the Chilean government is considering a trans-Pacific submarine cable linking the country to China. The report says the 24,000 km Asia-South America Digital Gateway cable could include stops in Auckland and Sydney. There will also be a connection to Easter Island, which is under Chilean administration.

Spark Sport reaches more devices

Spark Sport has added app support for Panasonic smart TVs, Sony Android TVs, Freeview A2 recorders and Freeview Smart Vu streaming devices. The app is already available on web, iOS and Android devices, 2017+ Samsung smart TVs, Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD and Google Chromecast.