Internet deals stay under wraps

Mark Callander, CEO of Slingshot is among the 13 internet retail providers who had expressed interest in offering products on the Government's ultra-fast fibre infrastructure. Photo / APN

Internet companies are cagey on what they will offer on the Government's ultra-fast broadband network and have revealed only snippets on the services customers can expect and the prices they will pay.

It is hoped fibre internet will offer download speeds of 100 megabits per second to 75 per cent of New Zealand over the next 10 years.

This is up to 20 times faster than average internet speeds today.

On Tuesday, the Government named 13 retail providers which had expressed interest in offering products on fibre infrastructure.

The list included Orcon, Slingshot/CallPlus, Vodafone and Woosh - TelstraClear and Telecom were notably absent.

After the announcement, internet companies kept the details of their fibre packages close to their chests, but all promised big things for customers.

Slingshot plans to offer basic phone services and internet speeds of 30 megabits per second for around $70 a month.

"Once you get to around $90 a month, customers should be able to receive unlimited national data and all of their national [telephone calling]," said the company's chief executive, Mark Callander.

Slingshot would keep offering access to iSky, an online video and television service for Sky TV subscribers, but would also look to offer more internet television in the future, Callander said.

Woosh had not finalised any of its packages but claimed its bundles would be competitive.

Orcon's chief executive, Scott Bartlett, said his company would offer speeds of 100 megabits per second from the get-go.

If the economics stack up, he said users should expect to pay around $100 a month for faster internet and around $70 for the entry-level 30 megabits per second.

The company was still to work out how much data users could download a month in these packages, but Bartlett said it would be much more than customers get now.

Phone services were also likely to be included in the deals, he said.

Like Slingshot, Orcon will continue to offer iSky on fibre, but Bartlett hinted other content would also be made available.

"There are some big plans for additional services on UFB along with exciting entertainment packages," he said.

Other countries with fibre internet offer bundles of products in conjunction with internet and email.

For instance, Singapore's fibre provider sells video-calling applications and access to multiple pay and free-to-air television channels at similar prices to those New Zealanders will pay for faster internet.

Although local companies can estimate how much customers will pay, prices are based on the wholesale rates which internet providers pay to use the fibre network.

In most areas, these are still being negotiated between the Crown and those bidding to build the fibre network.

In Whangarei, where the fibre scheme is already being built, internet provider Uber Group said it was too expensive for them to offer 100 megabits per second.

"With the fibre model, [retail providers] have to bring transit to regional areas and that is really expensive. If you were to give [speeds of] 100 megabits to the home and customers were to use that on a large scale, you're delivering tens of gigabits to regional areas and you're talking $100,000 to $200,000 a month [of cost to the retail provider]," said Uber's managing director, Hayden Simon.

However, over time this price would drop and speeds would gradually increase, Simon said.

Uber was currently offering phone services and 10 gigabits of data at speeds of 15 megabits per second for $89.

MARKET RATES

Who's planning to offer ultra-fast internet:
* CallPlus/Slingshot
* FX Networks
* MaxNet
* Kordia
* Orcon
* Rural Link (Hamilton)
* TrustPower Kinect (Tauranga)
* Uber Group (Whangarei)
* Velocity Networks (Hamilton)
* Vodafone
* Woosh
* WorldXChange
* XfNet (Whangarei)

Prices customers will pay:
* $70-$100 a month for home phone calls and internet speeds between 30Mbps and 100Mbps.
* In some cases, this will include access to extra-content like iSky and other internet television.