Telecom NZ announces Ultra-Fast Broadband plans

Telecom New Zealand has launched its "next generation broadband" plans for services on the government-funded Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) fibre network.

The New Zealand fibre network has just two tiers of speeds: 30Mbps down, 10Mbps up; and 100Mbps down, 50Mbps up. Telecom New Zealand's plans announced today start at NZ$95 per month for 50GB worth of downloads on a 30Mbps plan.

Telecom NZ's CEO of retail Chris Quin said that the price was decided based on Telecom's existing ADSL prices.

"We're confident our pricing will appeal to customers, given they will enjoy the same amount of data with all the added benefits of UFB for not much more than their existing broadband plan," he said in a statement.

On the 30Mbps speed, customers can also pay NZ$109 per month for 150GB, or NZ$129 per month for 500GB. For the 100Mbps speed, customers will pay NZ$125 for 50GB of data per month, NZ$139 for 150GB per month, or NZ$159 for 500GB. For the 100Mbps plan, Telecom NZ is not currently capping data, so customers who are on the latter two plans, will only pay NZ$125 until the company brings in data caps.

Each plan comes with line rental, fibre installation, and a modem.

Small business customers can get 200GB of data on a 100Mbps plan for NZ$167.29 per month. Schools can get a 30Mbps synchronous plan for NZ$129 per month, or a 50Mbps synchronous plan for NZ$159 per month with unlimited data. The prices put Telecom New Zealand at the higher end of the market for fibre plans. Companies such as Orcon, WorldNet, and Snap offer more data at a cheaper rate.

Unlike Australia's broadband rollout, the copper line will remain in place next to the fibre connection, and Telecom New Zealand said that this copper service will continue to be used for voice, alarms, faxes, EFTPOS system, SkyTV, and medical alarms.