Chorus to launch trial 10 Gbps service

New Zealand wholesale broadband network provider Chorus has revealed plans to launch a trial of 10 Gbps broadband services for consumers and SMEs starting in mid-March.

The operator revealed that four retail broadband service providers — 2degrees, Kordia, Stuff Fibre and Trustpower — have signed up to the 10 Gbps trial service, and other providers have expressed a keen interest.

Chorus will offer the trial service in selected areas of Auckland and Wellington, starting with a pilot involving 30 residential customers.

The company will provide 10 Gbps services based on Nokia’s XGS-PON (10 Gigabit Symmetrical Passive Optical Network) technology.

Chorus Chief Customer OFficer Ed Hyde said the trial service is designed to help meet the relentless demand for greater and greater internet bandwidth.

“Our 10 gigabit-per-second residential and SME trial will see New Zealanders accessing one of the fastest broadband services available on the planet,” he said.

“It also reinforces the ability to easily upgrade the world-class fibre infrastructure we have been building as the latest technologies become available...We’re truly thrilled to be trialling our 10 Gbps fibre service, a service we know will underpin New Zealand’s digital future and continue our decade-long commitment to innovation and keeping New Zealand’s broadband infrastructure at the cutting edge.”

Chorus was structurally separated from the former Telecom New Zealand as a condition from securing the contract to become the main provider of New Zealand’s Ultrafast Broadband high-speed fibre network.

The separation was under similar circumstances to the situation in Australia with Telstra — a privatised former monopoly that had been handed a dominant market position was compelled as a result of a national broadband network project to separate its wholesale network assets.

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