Telecom New Zealand has introduced its "Ultra VDSL" service as a "stepping stone" to a fiber to the premises (FTTP) solution via the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative.
"While we are convinced that fibre will be the main driver of New Zealand's future internet connectivity, fewer than one in ten Kiwis can get fibre today and its availability will not match that of current broadband infrastructure for three or four years yet, by current estimates," said Chris Quin, CEO of Telecom Retail, in a release. "In contrast, around 60% of New Zealanders currently live and work in areas where VDSL is a great solution for better, faster broadband right now."
Offering speeds of up to 15-70 Mbps to almost two-thirds of homes and businesses, eligible customers can choose from a range of service plans, including: an 80 GB plan for NZD 95 (USD 75) a month and the largest data plan of 500GB at NZD 129 (USD1 01) a month.
Consumers have to pay a NZD 99 (USD 78) installation fee, while businesses can access VDSL service at the same price as a standard ADSL plan with a NZD 199 (USD 156) installation fee.
Since VDSL is sensitive to distance, customers have to be located within 1 km from their nearest telephone exchange or RT cabinet.
The debut of the VDSL service comes after TNZ began offering its UFB FTTH-based services directly to consumers, businesses and schools in the country in March. Like the Ultra VDSL service, "Ultra Fibre" offers a choice of two speed plans: 30/10 Mbps or 100/50 Mbps.
TNZ will also offer VDSL access to smaller towns and rural areas as broadband infrastructure gets built over the next few years via the government's Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI).
Meanwhile, the telco's former wholesale arm Chorus, said this week that it would bring fiber to 250,000 premises in the next two-year phase of its portion of the UFB build out.
For more:
- see the release
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