Ultrafast broadband uses tiny glass fibres to transmit digital signals at high speed. The technology can send much more information than traditional copper telephone lines.
Benefits of ultrafast broadband (UFB) include uninterrupted streaming of high-resolution online films and subscription TV (such as Netflix) as well as seamless working of cloud-based computer programs, that say, share video online.
New Zealand's 10-year rollout is more than halfway down the track. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), says 74 per cent of areas that will get it now have UFB available. Of these, about a third of homes or businesses have installed them.
In Auckland, most central suburbs and the North Shore have fibre available, although MBIE concedes many do not, including Hobsonville, Waterview, Lynfield, Hillsborough and most of Te Atatu South and Titirangi.
But if a house is in a street without ultrafast broadband, does that affect buyer or renter interest? Real estate agents say not yet.
Steen Neilsen, a real estate agent at Ray White Remuera, says many buyers ask if fibre is available, but he believes they do not ignore streets that don't have fibre in it.
"I don't tell vendors they should install fibre before they list their property," he says.
Having said that, Neilsen says having a house fibred up is important in new builds, and some have power points for electric cars.
"It depends on the demographic," says Craig Catley, director/licensee agent of Ray White Takapuna. He reckons baby boomers (the demographic who largely can afford to buy in Takapuna) probably still mainly watch mainstream TV, rather than stream movies or use internet TV services.
Yet, overseas, there is evidence that broadband speed influences house prices.
Research by the London School of Economics and Politics has found home buyers in London are willing to pay up to 8 per cent above market price for properties offering ultrafast broadband.
Researchers' statistics compiled from 1995-2010 showed property prices across the UK increased on average by about 3 per cent when internet speed doubled.
Fibre is new, so perhaps fewer people have built their lives round it than overseas. Still, research here shows a fair variety of applications. Surveys by the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) found cloud applications, remote working, cheap net-based phone calls and improved video conferencing were the best-known benefits of UFB for businesses.
People at home are more interested in high-definition movies and cloud-based services, that work much better with fibre. Craig Young, chief executive TUANZ says the main reason he will be signing up at his Silverdale home is his current broadband slows when his 20-something-year-old children and their partners start streaming movies or TV programmes. Young's house will get fibre in May 2018.
Out west, fibre has made it to Titirangi Village, though not to the surrounding houses. Gary Richards manages a Titirangi graphic design business. He downloads large files sometimes, so he has installed fibre at the office but it is not available at his Wood Bay home. Sometimes, when working from home, the internet can be 'pitifully slow' after 3pm, and Netflix and Apple TV don't always work well.
However, not everyone feels the same way. Bevis England, a publisher who works from a home office, edits and produces The Fringe, Titirangi's community magazine, near Titirangi beach. You might think Bevis would be an ideal candidate for fibre; but he's not sure.
His most data-intensive task is sending the magazine to the printers. This takes 20 to 30 minutes on old-fashioned, copper-based ADSL.
He doesn't download movies and he's the only one at home using broadband. He's uncertain if he'd install fibre when it's available in two years.
But he has ditched his cloud-based services (which enabled him to access his files on a phone or laptop anywhere) because they were too slow.
Reliability of broadband services is a related issue, showing a problem with the trend to increased reliability on the cloud and the grid.
England checks the weather before he sends his magazine to the printers, just in case the net falls over or there's a power cut resulting from a falling tree.
