Net to get faster, but strings attached

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Access to the country's new ultra-fast broadband network could cost up to $80 a month - but there may not be a huge breakthrough in speed, leaked documents reveal.

The Herald has obtained a "price book" revealing the charges the Government expects on the fibre network, which will cost taxpayers $1.5 billion.

The price book is a document given to potential internet providers and reveals the wholesale cost per month.

Retail costs can be estimated by adding an 18 per cent retail margin as defined by the Commerce Commission previously, and GST.

That would mean a moderate cost of between $47 and $80 per month for access, with speeds starting at double those on the present copper wire network.

Speeds will begin at 30 megabits per second (mbps) for downloads and 10 mbps for uploads, rising to 100/50Mbps at the top rate.

However, data caps are not mentioned in the price book, and these are likely to be decided by the internet provider. Providers at present bundle some data in with broadband connection packages, but extra is often charged at about $2 per gigabyte. 50GB a month is considered heavy use at present speeds.

Telecommunications Users Association head Paul Brislen said customers would greatly benefit from the increased speeds of the fibre-to-the-door network.

However, he said the Government had not been clear what the cost of the new package would get consumers.

"We don't know what will happen over the 10-year life span of the project, whether that goes down, whether that goes up, whether that includes international bandwidth."

"This worries me because 10 years ago I wasn't using Facebook or Twitter or even Google.

"So trying to predict what I'll be doing in 10 years, let alone what I'll be paying for it seems odd."

He said he did not understand why speeds offered would begin at 30Mbps when the network had capacity for 100Mbps.

However, "The beauty of fibre is that it's upscalable ... so it's not like they have to dig up the roads again," he said.

So far the infrastructure roll-out has got under way only in Northland, but the aim is to have ultra-fast broadband available to 75 per cent of people within the 10-year life of the project.

The project is being managed by Crown Fibre Holdings on behalf of the Government.

In Australia, pricing and broadband service options have been released for public discussion.

But Crown Fibre Holdings has revealed very little about what the country can expect in return for its $1.5 billion investment.

The price book also reveals a surprise add-on - internet TV. This comes as a low-cost option for the broadband plans, or $5 wholesale for a stand-alone high-definition service.