Telecom New Zealand offers 'naked' broadband plans for fiber-connected customers

Telecom New Zealand, which will officially become Spark on Aug. 8, is beefing up the types of services it offers to high-speed broadband customers who can live without a basic phone package and who are part of the carrier's growing fiber network.

The carrier's "Naked Ultra Fibre" offers 30 Mbps and 100 Mbps speeds for prices starting at $55 a month. As of February, Telecom New Zealand had fibered about 27 percent of its service area, opening the way for the ultra-high-speed broadband packages.

"The landline continues to be popular, of course, but a growing group of our customers tell us that the only calls they receive on the home phone are from people who are either trying to sell them something or asking about their political views. Those customers are quite happy to stop chatting to telemarketers and political pollsters if it means they can save a few dollars each month," Jason Paris, Telecom New Zealand's general manager of home, mobile and business told Voxy.

The only catch to the plans is that customers must be in areas served by fiber--and that's still not a majority of those served by the carrier.

"Ultra Fibre customers tell us that once they've experienced life online with fiber, they could never go back to their old broadband plan--it is that much better," Paris said. "This is particularly the case when it comes to data hungry applications like gaming or video."

While landline phones may be a thing of the past for these subscribers, they are not without voice options. Those who purchase the Ultra Mobile plan for $30 a month or above get an additional $20 discount.

For more:
- Voxy has this story

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