No copper in my house, please

Around the turn of the century, IBM would take journalists to see their "home of the future" in Sydney.

I remember big flat screen tellies that worked as security systems, and fridges run by the internet.

Now, as governments begin their Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) roll-outs, these glamorous visions can finally become reality.

Or maybe not!

It seems that despite what we might have been led to believe, our homes and offices might not be UFB-ready.

It seems as though even if a home is marketed as "fibre ready" it may not be, with twisted fibre pairs being installed rather than CAT 5 or 6 cables.

So, if fibre does make its way to the door — and Auckland-based power lines company Vector has raised the issue of fibre-to-the-door in its bid for work on the New Zealand government's UFB project — we might not be getting the best speeds that we can.

I had a look at a few house-builder websites, and though they were happy to say their houses were earthquake-proof, I could not find any reference to the broadband capabilities of the properties.

Telecom division Chorus has issued help and guidelines for developers and homebuilders to do it properly.

New Zealanders need to quiz our housing and office providers, just to make sure that they are following such instructions.

Certainly, when I finally get around to buying a place, broadband availability and speed will be a major consideration.