─ New Zealanders to be given 59 hours back* with exponential speed increase ─

A new era of broadband speed is planned, with Chorus today unveiling Hyperfibre - its next generation of fibre technology.

Using a XGS-PON fibre solution, Hyperfibre is set to dramatically increase capacity and unlocks the ability to deliver exponential speeds on the Chorus fibre network of up to 10 Gbps.

Hyperfibre speeds of 2Gbps and 4Gbps are planned initially, with an 8Gbps service in the future. The planned services will be symmetric, with the same speeds for both download and upload, which are expected to save Kiwi consumers and businesses an estimated 59 hours* on average each year.

With these speeds New Zealand would become one of only 10 countries in the world to deploy broadband faster than GPON and the first in the Southern Hemisphere.

Ed Hyde, Chorus’ Chief Customer Officer says following the release of gigabit services in 2016, Hyperfibre further illustrates the near limitless potential of our fibre network and can enable a new era of high-capacity creativity, innovation and efficiency.

“With uploads and downloads happening in a blink of an eye, we can expect time and productivity savings across the board, especially for customers who transfers large amounts of data, such as creative industries.

“The exceptionally low latency of Hyperfibre will also offer new ways to collaborate and the potential to revolutionise digital business models. Obvious advocates will be those using high performance software applications that depend on real-time communication and high-resolution images, such as remote medical diagnostics and surgery, instantaneous software prototyping, as well as gaming and interactive entertainment services.”

Mariano Segedin, Head of Operations at Augusto, a hybrid creative and production agency that has been trialling Hyperfibre products, says the hyper connectivity has been critical to the workflow and growth of their New York office and client base.

“Given the nature of our business, we constantly find ourselves transferring large video files to offices across the globe. Having trialled Hyperfibre services, a 1TB file (1,000GB) that would ordinarily take 12 hours to download/upload, now takes just 18 minutes.”

As the majority of the infrastructure is already in place the intention is to release Hyperfibre services on a region-by-region basis from February 2020.

In the meantime customers can register their interest and receive updates on the availability of the new Hyperfibre speeds at www.chorus.co.nz/hyperfibre

* Yearly estimate is based on the average per user connection speed and data consumed for September 2019 across the Chorus network compared with maximum Hyperfibre 4000 connection speeds.

Ends

For more information please contact:

Steve Pettigrew

Stakeholder and Communications Manager

Mobile: +64 27 258 6257

Email: steve.pettigrew@chorus.co.nz

Additional information for editors

Indicative timeline of Hyperfibre release by telco cabinet and exchange areas (subject to necessary regulatory approvals)

February 2020 – Queenstown, Arrowtown, Wakatipu, Wanaka & Cromwell

March 2020 – Courtenay Place, Johnsonville, Miramar, Wellington

April 2020 – Invercargill, Invercargill East, Waikiwi

May 2020 – Auckland, Avondale, Birkenhead, Mayoral Drive, Ponsonby

June 2020 – Palmerston North

September 2020 – The wider Chorus UFB1 fibre network

Cost for Hyperfibre connections

Wholesale pricing for Hyperfibre services is yet to be finalised but is expected to be a modest premium on current gig pricing.

Ordering process

When Hyperfibre is available in their area customers will be able to contact their preferred broadband provider directly to place their order.

This upgrade will take place in two parts: