Hot Off the Press Release: Record Pre-RWC Demand for Fibre

Spark’s decision to lower the streaming quality of Spark Sport is hard to fathom when Chorus claims in this press release that boosting its networks’ capacity “allows for an additional 400,000 simultaneous full HD video streams ensuring traffic can flow smoothly between Chorus and the broadband retailers’ network”.

Here’s the press release in full:

Record demand for fibre as Rugby World Cup nears

Chorus has today revealed it has received and completed a record number of fibre connections in a single month, as Kiwis prepare to watch Rugby World Cup.

Latest figures show Chorus received about 33,000 fibre connection orders over the month of July and completed about 26,000 connections. This is made up of about 15,000 new fibreinstallations and 11,000 new connections where fibre had previously been installed.

These figures are well up on the 27,000 orders and 22,000 fibre installations and connections completed in June.

While demand for fibre is at a record high, the time it takes for Chorus to install fibre continues to get faster. In February, the lead time for an installation was 10 business days but last month that figure dropped to seven days, as Chorus increased the resource needed to deal with the surge in orders ahead of Rugby World Cup.

The record month comes as Chorus confirms its fibre and copper networks are now fully optimised and ready to support full high definition streaming for New Zealanders to enjoy Rugby World Cup.

Chorus is expecting online viewing of the tournament to result in a significant spike in data use, particularly where matches are not available free-to-air broadcast.

“In preparing for Rugby World Cup, Chorus brought forward two years of capacity growth to ensure it can keep its fibre and copper networks congestion free and ensure a fantastic viewing experience,” Martin Sharrock, Chorus’ Head of Network Technology says.

“Allowing two hours of viewing per game means Kiwis could use 6GB of data  per game on top of what they normally use. Clearly families will want to be on a fibre or VDSL connection and armed with unlimited data.”

Latest figures show the average household used 277GB of broadband data last month (215GB in July 2018 and 172GB in July 2017)

In addition, Chorus has worked with the retail broadband providers to ensure more than 2Tbps of further handover capacity has been added to its copper and fibre networks. This allows for an additional 400,000 simultaneous full HD video streams ensuring traffic can flow smoothly between Chorus and the broadband retailers’ networks.

With about 40 days until the opening match in Japan, Chorus is continuing to encourage Kiwis to get their homes connected to fibre or VDSL for the best possible viewing experience.

“There are a limited number of homes we can connect to fibre in the weeks before the tournament and we’re encouraging Kiwis to get in quick so that they can get the best possible viewing experience.

To check if fibre is available at your place use the broadband checker at www.chorus.co.nz.