Three New Zealand fiber companies - Enable, Northpower Fibre, and Ultrafast Fibre - will be offering a 1 Gigabit product for residential subscribers over the state's Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) network.
Communications Minister Amy Adams immediately welcomed the move, saying that broadband has become faster, cheaper, and increasingly available to New Zealanders since the government launched the UFB initiative in 2009.
“The announcement is the next big step forward to even faster speeds,” she said. “Faster speeds means people can use the internet in ways that were never possible before, creating more innovation and productivity from the government’s $1.35 billion investment into the UFB.”
The release of the new Residential Only BS2a 1G/500Mbps service will start from October 1. These speeds are ten times faster than the government’s benchmark policy product of 100Mbps from the original UFB tender.
Between March and June 2016, 87% of new residential connections were for 100Mbps or more. Nine percent of new residential connections are already for 200Mbps or above.
“There are already over 3700 active residential 1 Gigabit services in New Zealand, and I expect to this grow with the residential gigabit to be available in a third of all 33 UFB candidate areas,” Adams concluded.