Fibre broadband typically offers the best broadband speeds available. If you are still on ADSL or VDSL, or fibre has recently rolled out in your area, you may be wondering whether it’s worth upgrading to a Fibre broadband package. And if you do upgrade, how do you choose the right fibre broadband plan for you?
The best type of broadband package will depend on how you use broadband at home – are you a light user or a heavy user? For more details information check out our guide to broadband speeds
If you’re not online a lot, and you just occasionally check email or browse the net, then you probably don’t need to worry about upgrading to fibre for it’s performance. But, if you haven’t checked your broadband plan recently, it is worth comparing plans to make sure you are getting the best value. You may find that a different provider, or a Fibre broadband plan is cheaper than the package you currently have!
If you live in a home with multiple people streaming TV or HD movies, or with multiple devices connected to your home Wifi then you are probably a heavy broadband user.
You may already be feeling the frustration of slow download plans or buffering on your home ADSL or VDSL connection. One of the main advantages of fibre is that it offers a constant speed, so the service won’t fluctuate like older broadband services that rely on copper cable technology.
You are probably the perfect candidate for high speed Fibre Broadband, with unlimited download limits. But all Fibre Broadband plans are not created equal – which one do you need?
Fibre broadband packages often start at either “Fibre 100” or “Fibre 200” packages - these ultrafast fibre broadband plans have average speeds up to 100mb/s or 200mb/s depending on your plan.
These plans should be perfect for families who have multiple devices connected at one time, streaming HD or 4k videos, browsing the web, using social media, streaming music and gaming online. As a point of comparison the time it takes to download 5 Gigs (or 1 HD movie) will be around 7 min on Fibre 100 or 4 min on Fibre 200.
If you are new to Fibre broadband, you may find Fibre 100 or Fibre 200 comfortably meets your needs. These plans are a good starting point, you can always upgrade in the future if you need to.
Gigabit broadband plans are relatively new residential broadband. Gigabit broadband offers some serious speed - up to 1 gigabit per second (1 Gbps). So, you’ll likely never need to worry about buffering ever again – with a Gigabit speed plan you can stream at least five High Definition (HD) videos at the same time and you would still have enough bandwidth to surf the web and send emails.
With a Gigabit Plan you can download an entire HD digital movie (with an average size of 14GB) in a little under 2 minutes, or download a 4MB song in around 0.03 seconds.
If you work or study from home, you can send massive chunks of data and files across the internet, faster than you can write the data to a thumb drive or USB stock.
Earlier this week Chorus announced plans to launch “hyperfibre” broadband in the New Year. The network provider says it will provide 2 gigabit per second and 4 gigabit per second UFB fibre plans for some South Islanders from February, followed by Auckland in May and a broader rollout to follow.
A Hyperfibre broadband plan will be up to 40 times faster than today’s most common UFB plans. You should be able to download a high definition movie in just one second….wow!
Chorus have said that the plans will be available to residential customers although they expect hyperfibre to mostly be of interest to businesses.
