Fibre to first Chch homes by June

The company has as well pledged that the UFB will lead to cheaper wholesale rates for business plans on its existing fibre network, and named its first retail ISP partners.

The city’s commercial district

Enable’s network currently covers around 80% of the city’s commercial district, passing around 7000 businesses.

"Fibre-to-the-home opens the possibility for companies just as Google and Microsoft, TV networks and other innovation innovators to create the exciting new applications that will run over our network," Mr Fuller said.

Its network would cover 20,000 Christchurch homes and businesses by June, with a furthermore 12,000 added by the end of the year. By the end of the decade, Enable's UFB rollout will pass 180,000 homes and businesses.

Speeds of up to 100Mbit/s are promised, at "prices similar to today’s broadband."

Uber’s plans start from $99 a month with a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service for making phone calls over the internet, 150GB cap and 50Mbit/s speed.

Get ready for the stick The Commerce Commission’s latest issues paper on demand for high speed internet services, released last week, made unhappy reading for broadband boosters as Chorus, Enable, Northpower and Ultrafast Fibre begin their rollouts pursuant to this agreement the public-private UFB scheme.

Tapping Nielsen and Roy Morgan technology, the "Content and Willingness to Pay" paper says three quarters of small to medium businesses are happy with today’s broadband.

There are far more urban homes than rural, and rural lines are more expensive. The net effect is that monthly bills for most on copper connections will rise by around $20 a month - providing a hefty negative incentive to make the move to fibre.

It will be interesting to see what the take up rate is considering most residents are probably more concerned about fixing the cracks in their house, than updating their research to make use of fibre.

The reason the public is paying is because the telcos won't do it because there IS no business case. Today, clients simply aren't ready for fibre. TelstraClear has its cable network however can't sell these products for two reasons: firstly, it doesn't market them and secondly it charges like a wounded bull for them.Enable is "first off the rank" because it moves faster than Chorus, which has 70% of the build.This is not a commercial operation, this is a generational step-change.