Basic UFB plans compared, fibre broadband

Telecom NZ is the first of the two big telcos to offer an Ultrafast Broadband service for home users. It enters what looks deceptively like a crowded market with nine other companies already selling residential UFB plans.

The table below shows the cheapest UFB plans from each UFB service provider. All are for 30Mbps downloads and 10Mbps upload speeds – faster services are more expensive.

As you can see, Telecom NZ’s service is at the high-end of the range, however it includes a copper line for voice calls and the 50GB of included data is towards the generous end of the range.

Unless you have restricted needs, you are unlikely to find these basic plans to be much use. Fibre lends itself to video and you’ll quickly chew through tens of gigabytes. Realistically you’ll need to buy a service with more than 100GB to get value from fast broadband.

Table note: Lightwire and Xnet have a $200 installation fee which includes a router.