This week the Herald revealed details and wholesale pricing for the government's Ultra-Fast Broadband network.
Up until now, most of the information for the UFB network had been kept secret by the government's agency in charge of the project, Crown Fibre Holdings.
See details of the leaked pricing in the table below.
However, a CFH spokesman, who did not wish to be named, said the agency has published "key pricing details" in December last year on its website and on fact sheets.
Once the UFB agreements with bidders have been finalised, CFH will release full pricing the spokesman said.
The spokesman saidsthe pricing and service details have been "under commercial negotiation in a tender process" and that was why the New Zealand UFB was not comparable with the next-generation rollouts in Australia and Singapore.
In those countries, details of the new networks were published ahead of deployment, for discussion.
Asked why the UFB will launch with a comparatively low-speed 30Mbps downstream and 10Mbps upstream speed plan when the Minister Joyce promised the minimum service would be 100/50Mbps, the spokesman said the latter product would be available to all UFB customers.
According to the spokesman, the 30/10Mbps plan is an entry level wholesale product that provides higher bandwidth speeds than current broadband products. It also provided higher guaranteed minimum bandwidth, 2.5Mbps or 10Mbps depending on the plan, than today's broadband.
The bandwidth guarantee comes into play when the broadband network gets congested with many users at the same time. Today's copper-based broadband only guarantees 32 to 45kbps, or less than dial-up speed, during busy times.
Up to 24 users will share each UFB residential fibre-optic network segment, according to CFH documents.
Asked why the UFB residential plans are asymmetric - with faster download than upload speed - the spokesman said this was due to the technology used.
The spokesman says the UFB mass-market service will use "Gigabit Passive Optical Networking" or GPON, which provides a total bandwidth of 2.488Gbps downstream and 1.244Gbps upstream.
Even so, the spokesman said internet providers can in fact buy additional capacity on the upstream link, and construct a symmetrical retail service on GPON. The CFH price book limits the additional upstream capacity to 50Mbps so the fastest symmetrical service would be 50/50Mbps.
For those who need faster service, the spokesman said the enterprise market UFB offerings using point to point Ethernet connections were symmetric and ran at up to 10Gbps.
The spokesman also said that specifications for the UFB have been designed in conjunction with the industry organisation the Telecommunications Carriers Forum and its members.
They were designed to offer flexibility and choice. This was why the UFB service options include features such as wireless connections for inside people's premises and standard telephone ports, according to the spokesman.
Taxpayers are contributing $1.5 billion to the UFB project, which is expected to cost $3 to $5 billion to complete over the next six years.
Up until now, UFB negotiations have been concluded for the middle North Island and Whangarei. This covers just under 16 per cent of premises to be covered by the UFB, and the agreements are valued at over $200 million according to the CFH.
Earlier this month, thirteen retail internet providers indicated they intended to sell UFB services to customers. Of these, Slingshot has priced the 30/10Mbps plan with 2.5Mbps guarantee at $90 a month.
For this, customers will get a service with no data cap for traffic within New Zealand and Wi-Fi access within the home. The Slingshot service will also come with two voice lines and unlimited national calling according to the provider's CEO Mark Callander.
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| 30/10Mbps 2.5Mbps CIR | $35.00 | $47.50 | 30/10Mbps 10Mbps CIR with phone line and IPTV | $38.75 | $52.60 |
| 100/50Mbps 2.5Mbps CIR and phone line | $55.00 | $74.65 | 100/50Mbps 10Mbps CIR with phone line and IPTV | $58.75 | $79.75 |
# Price per month including GST
